Courtesy: Christopher Oleksiak
Cook Inlet Conference swimmers met at Bartlett High School Saturday for the Cook Inlet Conference Swim Championships. The Dimond Lynx Girls and Boys teams both won team titles at a conference meet that featured eight events that would have won titles at the last State Championship and a Top 10 national high school performance from Eagle River’s Anna Keen.
Girls Team Results:
- Dimond High School, 518.5
- South Anchorage High School, 316
- Chugiak High School, 311
- West Anchorage High School, 254
- Eagle River High School, 240
- Robert Service High School, 204
- East High School, 58.5
- Bartlett High School, 46
Boys Team Results:
- Dimond High School, 435
- Robert Service High School, 411
- Eagle River High School, 347
- West Anchorage High School, 268
- South Anchorage High School, 246
- Chugiak High School, 178
- East High School, 57
- Bartlett High School, 9
Freshman Anna Keen dropped .86 from her prelim time in the 50 free to out-touch Isabelle Borke of Dimond, finishing in a time of 23.65. Her time was the 8th best 50 free in the nation so far this high school season. Keen’s time puts her only .08 behind Carmel’s top ranked Alex Shackell in the 13-14 age group this season. Keen also dominated the 100 breast, finishing in a time of 1:05.73. She dropped 1.82 seconds from her prelim time and won the event by over five seconds.
The Dimond girls earned big points by sweeping all three relays. In addition to the relay victories, individual Dimond champions included Dreamer Kowatch who dropped over 9 seconds in the 200 Free (1:52.05), Isabelle Borke (100 Free), Paige Antrobus (500 Free), and Hannah Boyce who dropped over 3 seconds to go under 1:00 for the first time in the 100 Back (58.71).
Other individual winners included Kiara Borchardt (200 IM, 100 Fly) and Anna Keen (50 Free, 100 Breast) of Eagle River. Dimon and Eagle River also went 1-2 at the 2019 Alaska High School State Championship meet — a meet featuring Lydia Jacoby in the 100 Breast (the 2020 meet was cancelled due to COVID-19).
This meet featured five events with times that would have won the 2019 State Finals: 200 Medley Relay (Dimond), 200 Free (Kowatch), 50 Free (Keen), 100 Fly (Borchardt), and 200 Free Relay (Dimond).
On the boys’ side, Dimond beat defending State Champions Robert Service High School in a close meet. Only 24 points separated the two teams (Service defeated Dimond at the State Finals by only 3 points in 2019).
The Eagle River boys won the 200 Medley and 200 Free relays (Eagle River came in third overall at the meet). Service won a close race over Dimond in the 400 Free relay clocking in at 3:19.94, just 0.37 ahead of second place.
Individual winners included Kenneth Octuk (200 Free) and Andrew Billings (50 Free) of Dimond, Mathew Heaphy (200 IM, 100 BR) and Thomas Myers (100 Fly) of Eagle River, Reuben Dobson (100 Free) of Chugiak, Conrad Fawcett (500 Free) and Gavin Kitchen (100 Back) of Service.
The Eagle River Medley Relay (1:37.48), Octuk’s 200 Free (1:43.52), and Fawcett’s 500 Free (4:46.62) times would have been good enough to win the 2019 State Championship meets as well.
The Alaska State Championship meet is scheduled for November 5-6 at Bartlett High School. The State Championship will be livestreamed on the NFHS Network.