She rarely leaves the water. Entering today's Cook Inlet Conference swimming and diving championships, Wicks has posted the state's fastest times in three events and is ranked in the top four in seven of the eight swimming events.
"I like doing a lot of different things," Wicks said Wednesday. "I don't like training for just one event; that way I have more options."
Wicks, a sophomore, owns the state's fastest times in the 50-meter freestyle, the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. Last season she won CIC titles in the 200 individual medley and the 100 freestyle, then went on to take the state 200 individual medley title and placed second in the 100 freestyle.
This season, she said, she'll likely swim the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke at the conference and state meets.
East coach Cliff Murray, who also coaches Wicks at the club level with the Northern Lights Swim Club, said Wicks is easy to coach because of her desire to spend so much time in the pool.
"She's a pretty good swimmer and a very hard worker," he said.
A typical week for Wicks involves between 10 and 15 hours of training, including early morning practice three times a week, weight lifting twice a week and club practice on Saturdays. Despite early success and her devotion to the sport, Wicks said she'd likely be in the pool just as much even if there was nothing on the line.
"Even if I'm not swimming on a team, I'm still going to try to swim because swimming is a huge part of my life," she said. "It makes me happy."
Wicks has friends on teams throughout Anchorage and Alaska thanks to her career in club swimming, which started when she was 8.
"I like swimming with people that I know, it doesn't really matter who wins, we just push each other," she said.
She's looking forward to the conference and state meets both because it will give her a chance to swim against the best Alaska has to offer.
"This is my favorite part of high school swimming," she said. "These are two weeks of extremely fast swimming."
Wicks already holds two individual school records in the 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle. Her mark in the 50 free broke the record previously held by eight-time individual state champion and current Northwestern University swimmer Meghan Cavanaugh.
But Wicks said she doesn't put much emphasis on such things. In fact, after she broke Cavanaugh's record earlier this season, she didn't realize it until after the meet was over.
"I was just looking up at the board and noticed my time was faster," she said.
Murray said Wicks' healthy attitude toward competition is refreshing. When Wicks lost to Service's Erin McDuffie by less than half a second in the 100 free final at last year's state meet, Wicks was excited for McDuffie's success, he said.
"She got touched out in the 100 free and came over and goes, 'She really deserved that,' " Murray said. "That's pretty unusual."
Wicks will face some stiff competition beginning Friday, when swimming preliminaries begin. Other top CIC girls include Margot Adams and Mary Uselmann of Service and Michelle Hawkins and Nikki Wray of Dimond. East and defending CIC champion Service should battle for the team title, Murray said.
On the boys' side, Dimond's Matt Summers boasts the state's top time in the 500 freestyle and top-three times in three other events. Murray said he expects Summers and the defending champion Lynx to again lead the way this weekend.
"That's a good group of guys and they have a reputation of being very hard workers," Murray said.
Find Matt Tunseth online at adn.com/contact/mtunseth or call 257-4335.
CIC Swimming and diving championships
At Bartlett High pool
Today 4:30 p.m. -- Diving preliminaries
Friday 3 p.m. -- Swimming preliminaries
Saturday 8:30 a.m. -- Diving preliminaries
3 p.m. -- Swimming and diving finals
State-best times for the 2009 swim season
Top 5
Boys
200 medley relay — 1) Juneau 1:40.45; 2) Lathrop 1:41.97; 3) Petersburg 1:43.25; 4) Dimond 1:43.43; 5) South 1:46.10. 200 free — 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 1:44.05; 2) Matt Summers, Dimond, 1:45.27; 3) Ryan O’Leary, Seward, 1:47.64; 4) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 1:47.75; 5) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 1:47.92. 200 IM — 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 1:57.48; 2) Matt Summers, Dimond, 1:59.31; 3) Keegan Severens, Lathrop, 2:02.15; 4) Jay Schultz, South, 2:02.46; 5) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 2:02.55. 50 free — 1) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 21.53; 2) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 21.97; 3) Ryan O’Leary, Seward, 21.99; 4) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 22.08; 5) Nick Rutecki, Juneau, 22.19. Diving (six dives) — 1) Scott Wandersee, Kodiak, 339.85; 2) Dalton Haas, Service, 241.90; 3) Alexander Deedy, Colony, 239.20; 4) Bryan Haley, Bartlett, 238.15; 5) Cody Tate, Soldotna, 222.00. 100 butterfly — 1) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 51.19; 2) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 51.92; 3) Ryan O’Leary, Seward, 53.56; 4) Tyler Mickelson, Juneau, 53.94; 5) Wyatt Adams, Service, 54.28. 100 free — 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 47.33; 2) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 47.58; 3) Ryan O’Leary, Seward, 48.22; 4) Wyatt Adams, Service, 48.89; 5) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 48.91. 500 free — 1) Matt Summers, Dimond, 4:47.01; 2) Wyatt Adams, Service, 4:54.55; 3) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 4:54.63; 4) Christian Long, Wasilla, 4:59.64; 5) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 5:00.41. 200 free relay — 1) Juneau 1:31.09; 2) Lathrop 1:33.72; 3) Dimond 1:33.82; 4) Kodiak 1:33.93; 5) South 1:33.94. 100 backstroke — 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 53.52; 2) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 55.82; 3) Matt Summers, Dimond, 56.17; 4) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 56.40; 5) Drew Vandermeer, West Valley, 57.44. 100 breast stroke — 1) Jay Schulte, Service, 1:00.69; 2) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 1:01.08; 3) Keegan Severens, Lathrop, 1:01.14; 4) Preston Marsh, Petersburg, 1:01.39; 5) Adam Kowalewski, Dimond, 1:02.60. 400 free relay — 1) Juneau 3:20.15; 2) Dimond 3:24.10; 3) Kodiak 3:27.70; 4) Service 3:29.65; 5) South 3:30.50.
Girls
200 medley relay — 1) Service 1:52.85; 2) Ketchikan 1:53.10; 3) Kodiak 1:53.72; 4) Dimond 1:55.00; 5) East 1:55.27. 200 free — 1) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 1:57.69; 2) Anne Goering, West Valley, 1:57.95; 3) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 1:59.98; 4) Sam Wicks, East, 2:00.56; 5) Nikki Wray, Dimond, 2:00.99. 200 IM — 1) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 2:13.21; 2) Sam Wicks, East, 2:13.62; 3) Olivia Bowen, Soldotna, 2:15.27; 4) Nikki Wray, Dimond, 2:15.76; 5) Elizabeth Bennett, Monroe, 2:16.24. 50 free — 1) Sam Wicks, East, 24.55; 2) Mary Uselmann, Service, 24.97; 3) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 25.13; 4) Anne Goering, West Valley, 25.30; 5) Tessa Hasbrouck, Petersburg, 25.37. Diving (six dives) — 1) Renee Jordan, East, 226.85; 2) Savannah Craft, West Valley, 194.85; 3) Joanna Wallace, Monroe, 188.00; 4) Mariah Schachel, Wasilla, 187.35; 5) Sam Sharp, Juneau, 183.65. 100 butterfly — 1) Margot Adams, Service, 58.67; 2) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 59.03; 3) Sam Wicks, East, 59.43; 4) Olivia Bowen, Soldotna, 59.50; 5) Elizabeth Bennet, Monroe, 1:00.89. 100 free — 1) Margot Adams, Service, 53.68; 2) Sam Wicks, East, 54.40; 3) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 54.62; 4) Anne Goering, West Valley, 54.72; 5) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 55.10. 500 free — 1) Sam Wicks, East, 5:18.36; 2) Margot Adams, Service, 5:19.92; 3) Shelby Perkins, North Pole, 5:21.80; 4) Nikki Wray, Dimond, 5:24.09; 5) Celeste Beck-Goodell, Kodiak, 5:25.17. 200 free relay — 1) East 1:43.14; 2) Service 1:43.30; 3) Kodiak 1:43.92; 4) Ketchikan 1:44.15; 5) South 1:44.78. 100 backstroke — 1) Sam Wicks, East, 58.68; 2) Margot Adams, Service, 59.92; 3) Michelle Hawkins, Dimond, 59.97; 4) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 1:00.24; 5) Victoria Adams, Service, 1:00.87. 100 breast stroke — 1) Kendra Standley, Ketchikan, 1:08.87; 2) Laura Griffing, Kodiak, 1:09.41; 3) Myra Scholze, Kodiak, 1:09.97; 4) Nikki Wray, Dimond, 1:11.15; 5) Hannah Norris, Valdez, 1:11.90. 400 free relay — 1) Kodiak 3:46.33; 2) Service 3:49.80; 3) Ketchikan 3:50.94; 4) Dimond 3:51.01; 5) East 3:51.56.
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