MG, MP swimmers prepare for postseason

Both girls swim teams in Marysville continue to hone their skills as the postseason nears.

“We had a lot of girls get their best times,” said Meredith Jenks of both teams’ recent efforts. Jenks is the head coach of both Marysville Getchell and Marysville Pilchuck swim teams. The two teams practice together at Marysville Pilchuck High School and have the same schedule.

During an Oct. 12 meet at home against Cascade, Jenks noted that Emily Heck competed for the first time in the varsity 1-meter springboard. “She worked really hard to get six different dives.”

She said Tomahawk swimmers Madison Cook and Maddie Chabot had outstanding swims in the 200-meter freestyle with times of 4:11 and 4:23 placing fourth and fifth. Maddy Sulya swam the 200-meter girls individual medley in 2:59 placing first, Isa Raynaud swam in 3:19 placing third and Lina Calderon swam 4:14 placing sixth. Marysville Getchell swimmers Chloe Clement swam 5:41 in the 200-meter freestyle placing fourth. Nanako Kempma swam 26.92 in the 50-meter freestyle placing first. Sylvia McWilliams placed second in the 500-meter freestyle swimming in 8:12 and Carol Ruch-Brown placed fifth swimming in 9:29. Emma Abele (10:35), Clement(15:10), and Aaliyah Montes(10:57) in the 500-meter freestyle had great outings against Cascade.

“It’s all about getting faster,” Jenks said.

Then, on Oct. 14, both swim teams traveled to the Snohomish Aquatic Center to face Glacier Peak. The Snohomish Aquatic Center will host the district meet.

“It was a good opportunity for our girls who will make it to district,” Jenks said.

She highlighted the efforts Marysville Getchell swimmers Angelina Kyrsak in the 200-meter freestyle (2:50), Hannah Ludwig (3:45) and Kenzie Collins (6:20) in the 200-meter individual medley, Sylvia McWilliams (7:57) and Sage Obiero (13:32) in the 500-meter freestyle and Lorelei Pringle in the 100-meter backstroke swimming in 1:09 placing second. Marysille Pilchuck swimmers Kenzie Collins in the 200-meter individual medley (6:20), Heck in the 50-meter freestyle (49.41), Isa Raynaud in the 100-meter butterfly (1:38) and Madison Cook(11:23) in the 500-meter freestyle also had great outings against Glacier Peak.

Sylvia McWilliams of Marysville Getchell placed fourth in the 550 freestyle swimming in 7:57. Pringle and Kempma placed second and third in the 100 backstroke.

The trip to Snohomish allowed both Marysville schools to honor their senior swimmers. Those seniors include Calderon, Raynaud, Devon Keator and Maddy Sulya from Marysville Pilchuck along with Marysville Getchell swimmers Anjolie Galang, Hailey Pineault, Ludwig, Michelle Burgess (team manager) and Taylor Miller.

“It was so nice to have spectators at that facility,” Jenks said. Spectators haven’t been allowed to attend Marysville’s home meets this season because of COVID regulations.

Marysville Pilchuck has 13 swimmers on its girls swim team while Marysville Getchell has 22 swimmers.

“We’ve been getting more and more girls,” Jenks said. “I was very pleased with the number of new people who came to join us.”

The Marysville swim teams have an internal award called the IronWoman, which is given to a swimmer who competed in every event over the course of the season, Jenks said in an email. She added the award is an expectation for the veteran swimmers but is a really big deal for the “newbies.” Currently 20 of 35 swimmers have earned the IronWoman recognition.

She added the teams have a lot of new freshmen and sophomores.

After going through a shortened season last school year, Jenks said its nice for the team to have a real season this school year.

Marysville’s regular season concludes Oct. 21 against Stanwood.

The junior varsity championships take place Oct. 28, and the conference championships take place Nov. 3 through Nov. 6 at the Snohomish Aquatic Center.