Anchorage Daily News

For many at the state swimming and diving championships, reaching the finals is good enough to make a meet.

East High sophomore Sam Wicks sets her sights a bit higher.

Swimming in the preliminary round of the girls 100-yard backstroke Friday, Wicks set a state record with a time of 56.68 seconds, besting Dimond's Yana Garvey's 2007 record by five hundredths of a second.

Her coach, Cliff Murray, said he wasn't surprised to see the record fall.

"That was a goal," Murray said poolside at Bartlett High's 50-meter natatorium following the race.

Murray said he and Wicks discussed the idea of going for the record during the preliminary round rather than today's finals. The plan was for her to go out fast and take a shot at a fast time.

"I said, 'Let's try to get this under your belt now,' " Murray said.

Wicks is scheduled to swim in today's 200-yard freestyle relay, where the T-birds are seeded second behind No. 1 Service. Approximately 10 minutes after that, she'll go for the state title in the backstroke, meaning her best chance to be fresh for the backstroke was Friday's preliminaries.

So she went for it, taking a huge lead through the first 50 yards and hanging on for best result in her young career.

"I knew if I was going to swim fast I had to go out fast and pray my legs didn't die," she said.

Wicks is not a strong finisher, so the idea was to give it all she had early and hope for the best in the final yards.

"If I don't go out fast enough, I don't bring it back fast enough," she explained. "It doesn't work for everybody."

After touching the wall, Wicks immediately looked to the scoreboard. When she saw that she'd gone under 57 seconds, she knew she had a personal best and a qualifying time for junior nationals. Then she saw the .68, meaning she'd beaten her previous personal best time by a whopping 1.5 seconds.

"I didn't expect to go that much faster," she said.

The backstroke wasn't the only big race of the day for Wicks. In qualifying for the 50 freestyle finals, she beat the field by more than half a second to become one of five swimmers to qualify with the fastest time in two events Friday.

Also locking up top seeds in two individual events were Dimond's Nikki Wray (200 individual medley, 500 freestyle), West Valley's Anne Goering (100 freestyle, 200 freestyle), Juneau's Cody Brunette (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly) and Seward's Ryan O'Leary (100 freestyle, 200 freestyle).

Wicks isn't expecting another record today, but she said anything is possible with such a talented field pushing her.

"Having the rest of the people from all over the state here, it's going to be a good race," she said.

The Dimond boys lead all teams with 13 spots in the individual finals, four more than defending state champion Juneau. Lathrop will send swimmers to the blocks in seven finals races, while Petersburg has six spots and South five.

The Lynx got the day's other big swim from senior Matt Summers, who swam away from the field in the boys 500 freestyle, beating second-place Christian Long of Wasilla by more than 17 seconds and coming within two seconds of the state record, set by Service's Ben Smith in 1990.

Among the girls, defending champion Service ruled the pool, picking up 12 spots in today's finals. Kodiak earned seven, while Dimond and Ketchikan each locked down six lanes.

The meet concludes today with relay, individual swimming and diving finals set to begin at 1 p.m.

Diving competition is close, especially for defending champion Renee Jordan of East. She scored 151.40 points in preliminaries for a narrow .20 lead over Katie Cartee (151.20). Dalton Haas of Service (212.65) is less than two points ahead of Kodiak's Scott Wandersee (210.95) in the boys competition.

Daily News reporter Matt Tunseth can be reached at mtunseth@adn.com or 257-4335.

ASAA/Alaska First National Bank

Alaska Swimming and Diving Championships

Preliminary round

Girls

200 freestyle -- 1) Anne Goering, West Valley, 1:57.44; 2) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 1:57.75; 3) Jori Lindquist, Kodiak, 1:59.37; 4) Hannah Iverson, Service, 1:59.92; 5) Katy Dalton, West, 2:01.02; 6) Jordan Iverson, 2:01.90; 7) Olivia Pfeifer, Kenai, 2:02.72; 8) Chelsea Knight, South, 2:03.23.

200 individual medley -- 1) Anne Goering, West Valley, 1:57.44; 2) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 1:57.75; 3) Jori Lindquist, Kodiak, 1:59.37; 4) Hannah Iverson, Service, 1:59.92; 5) Katy Dalton, West, 2:01.02; 6) Jordan Iverson, Service, 2:01.90; 7) Olivia Pfeifer, Kenai, 2:02.72; 8) Chelsea Knight, South, 2:03.23.

50 freestyle -- 1) Sam Wicks, East, 23.96; 2) Mary Uselmann, Service, 24.61; 3) Karina Barria, Wasilla, 24.96; 4) Ilaura Reeves, Lathrop, 25.04; 5) Hannah Norris, Valdez, 25.32; 6) Haley Bissell, Dimond, 25.35; 7) Tessa Hasbrouck, Petersburg, 25.40; 8) Paulina Yoo, South, 25.55.

100 butterfly -- 1) Margot Adams, Service, 58.23; 2) Janelle Stacy, Ketchikan, 59.72; 3) Elizabeth Bennett, Monroe, 59.91; 4) Auri Clark, Juneau, 1:00.35; 5) Olivia Bowen, Soldotna, 1:00.92; 6) Jesi Cavanaugh, 1:01.02; 7) Mary Uselmann, Service, 1:01.06; 8) Julie Jones, West Valley, 1:01.43.

100 freestyle -- 1) Anne Goering, West Valley, 53.60; 2) Emilee Johnson, Ketchikan, 54.41; 3) Margot Adams, Service, 54.46; 4) Laura Griffing, Kodiak, 55.16; 5) Hannah Norris, Valdez, 55.27; 6) Tessa Hasbrouck, Petersburg, 55.444; 7) Katy Dalton, West, 55.61; 8) Kaylen Jones, South, 56.29.

500 freestyle -- 1) Nikki Wray, Dimond, 5:19.43; 2) Celeste Beck-Goodell, Kodiak, 5:24.37; 3) Hannah Iverson, Service, 5:24.37; 4) Jordan Iverson, Service, 5:309.50; 5) Olivia Pfeifer, Kenai, 5:30.79; 6) Marie Schmidt, Homer, 5:32.33; 7) Donna McNulth, Homer, 5:33.13; 8) McKinley Wallace, East, 5:37.04.

100 backstroke -- 1) Sam Wicks, East, 56.68 (New state record. Old record: Yana Garvey, Dimond, 56.73, 2007) 2) Michelle Hawkins, Dimond, 58.39; 3) Jori Lindquist, Kodiak, 1:00.55; 4) Haley Bissell, Dimond, 1:01.48; 5) Victoria Adams, Service, 1:01.85; 6) Alissa Bezenek, Ketchikan, 1:03.69; 7) Paulina Yoo, South, 1:03.72; 8) Katelyn Payne, Colony, 1:03.75.

100 breast stroke -- 1) Laura Griffing, Kodiak, 1:06.42; 2) Kendra Stanley, Ketchikan, 1:08.70; 3) Myra Scholze, Kodiak, 1:09.01; 4) Donna McNulty, Homer, 1:10.82; 5) Ilaura Reeves, Lathrop, 1:11.05; 6) Christine Kirk, Service, 1:11.31; 7) Michaela Shirnberg, Soldotna, 1:11.96; 8) Randi Freestone, Soldotna, 1:12.18.

1-meter diving -- 1) Renee Jordan, East, 151.40; 2) Katie Cartee, South, 151.20; 3) Rachel Kennedy, Wasilla, 143.35; 4) Dezi Julo, Bartlett, 142.10; 5) Savannah Craft, West Valley, 138.60; 6) Joanna Wallace, Monroe, 134.60; 7) Sophie Hogen, Kodiak, 120.55; 8) Paris Bennett, Dimond, 119.85; 9) Lye-yeng Wong, South, 119.75; 10) Kaitlin Friedli, Chugiak, 114.75; 11) Mariah Schachel, Wasilla, 114.05; 12) Sam Sharp, Juneau, 113.80.

Boys

200 freestyle -- 1) Ryan O'Leary, Seward, 1:45.15; 2) Matt Summers, Dimond, 1:46.05; 3) Logan Hanneman, Lathrop, 1:47.44; 4) David Wilcox, Dimond, 1:49.48; 5) Josh Anderson, Juneau, 1:49.76; 6) Austin Reed, Kodiak, 1:49.84; 7) Simon Ross, Dimond, 1:51.68; 8) Jackson Ursin, Dimond, 1:52.37.

200 individual medley -- 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 2:56.75; 2) Keegan Severns, Lathrop, 1:57.98; 3) Jay Schulte, South, 2:00.14; 4) Gordon Reeder, Sitka, 2:05.03; 5) Case Kuikhoven, Ketchikan, 2:06.74; 6) Forrest Scofield, Service, 2:07.27; 7) Greg Evershed, Hutchison, 2:07.37; 8) Erik Wilcox, Dimond, 2:07.44.

50 freestyle -- 1) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 21.34; 2) Wyatt Adams, Service, 21.72; 3) Nick Rutecki, Juneau, 21.94; 4) Nando Macinko, Kodiak, 22.03; 5) Jordan Reid, Petersburg, 22.15; 6) Shawn Wooten, East, 22.24; 7) Ben Rockwell, South, 22.32; 8) Preston Marsh, Petersburg, 22.51.

100 butterfly -- 1) Cody Brunette, Juneau, 51.79; 2) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 51.93; 3) Tyler Mickelson, Juneau, 52.84; 4) Wyatt Adams, Service, 53.05; 5) Seth Cayce, Juneau, 53.41; 6) Phillip Martinez, Lathrop, 54.35; 7) David Wilcox, Dimond, 54.79; 8) Clayton Schauff, Kodiak, 55.15.

100 freestyle -- 1) Ryan O'Leary, Seward, 46.90; 2) Jeff Frey, Wasilla, 47.89; 3) Drew Vandermeer, West Valley, 48.31; 4) Logan Hanneman, Lathrop, 48.31; 5) Ben Rockwell, South, 48.52; 6) Adam Kowalweski, Dimond, 48.73; 7) Jordan Reid, Petersburg, 48.78; 8) Nick Rutecki, Juneau, 49.70.

500 freestyle - 1) Matt Summers, Dimond, 4:39.75; 2) Christian Long, Wasilla, 4:56.96; 3) Jackson Ursin, Dimond, 4:59.32; 4) Simon Ross, Dimond, 5:01.00; 5) Case Kuikhoven, Ketchikan, 5:01.45; 6) Jeff Danielson, Lathrop, 5:06.21; 7) Adam Miller, Service, 5:06.86; 8) Ian McCallum, Petersburg, 5:14.96.

100 backstroke -- 1) Nando Macinko, Kodiak, 54.87; 2) Drew Vandermeer, West Valley, 55.07; 3) Winter Heaven, Soldotna, 56.26; 4) Phillip Martinez, Lathrop, 56.78; 5) Cory Chan, Dimond, 56.99; 6) Luke Carson, West Valley, 57.59; 7) Zach Rockwell, South, 57.61; 8) Cody Schick, Juneau, 57.81.

100 breast stroke -- 1) Keegan Severns, Lathrop, 57.55; 2) Jay Schulte, South, 1:00.76; 3) (tie) Seth Cayce, Juneau, and Preston Marsh, Petersburg, 1:01.01; 5) Gordon Reeder, Sitka, 1:02.03; 6) Joeseph Sandstorm, Dimond, 1:03.18; 7) Adam Kowalewski, Dimond, 1:03.31; 8) Ben Vandermeer, West Valley, 1:04.63.

1-meter diving -- 1) Dalton Haas, Service, 212.65; 2) Scott Wandersee, Kodiak, 210.95; 3) Cade Bennett, Dimond, 171.35; 4) Bryan Haley, Bartlett, 168.45; 5) Rafe Hembree, West Valley, 149.20; 6) Alexander Deedy, Colony, 140.80; Elrik Hanson, Kodiak, 138.35; 8) Josh Oldham, South, 138.25; 9) Evan Tyler, West, 137.85; 10) Jay Graham, West Valley, 136.95; 11) Asa Aulbach, Petersburg, 130.00; 12) Cody Tate, Soldotna, 129.55.

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