The Haines Dolphins were back to practice after the first two swim meets of the year. KHNS reporter Claire Stremple went down to the pool to hear how the competitions went.

At 3:30 p.m. the Haines Dolphins were suiting up to jump into the pool. Assistant coach Jim Green had half the team warming up.

“It’s pretty laid back today because we just got through from some meets,” Green said. “If you come two days before a big meet then its gets more intense.”

The team returned to practice after meets in Whitehorse and Juneau. Head coach Jackie St. Clair said she’s happy with the results.

“It went really well; both meets went really well! The kids did great and dropped time in their events, which was really exciting.”

Fourteen team members swam in Whitehorse at the beginning of the month and eight traveled to Juneau last week. St. Clair said their times were promising: some swimmers are fast enough to qualify to compete in the big Anchorage meet at the end of the season.

“It’s the equivalent to going to state for a high school sport,” said St. Clair. “They’re swimming against the fastest swimmers in the state of Alaska and placing with the fastest swimmers in the state of Alaska. So for a small town swim team I’m really proud of all our swimmers. We definitely hold our own.” 

For swimmers like Pacific Rickey, meets are a good way to stay motivated. She traveled to Juneau for last weekend’s meet to swim against the Juneau and Ketchikan teams.

“This meet is just more for fun and to see how you’re doing and compare to against other people,” said Rickey.

She’s been swimming since Kindergarten and thinks she’ll stick with it: “I want to try to swim through high school and definitely—hopefully—college, but who knows.”

That’s good news for the dolphins. The team has from 5 to 14 years old, and is working to retain high school athletes. It’s a big team and St. Clair said retention is good this year. “Last year in January we had about  70 swimmers and this year we started out with 70. So that’s very exciting. We have a lot of new swimmers and a lot of swimmers from the previous years.”

Haines will host a meet this January. St. Clair expects it will bring in 100 swimmers from Juneau and Ketchikan.