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Crimson Bears in the pool and on the boards
- Klas Stolpe
- 2 hours ago
- 10 min read
JDHS swim and dive team return ready to kick bubbles and take names
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears swim and dive team will compete in their first meet of the season this Friday and Saturday at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center pool, hosting teams from Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka and Wrangell.
“I am so excited for our senior night this upcoming week and I am excited to just have a really fun senior season with my friends,” JDHS senior co-captain Kennedy Miller said. “We have a lot of seniors this year, and it is just a really great time to spend our last season together. It means a lot to me to be a captain, that my team has enough trust to put me out as one of their leaders. I feel like I am always here for them and I want to be someone that they can come to when they are having a hard time. And I am just really excited for this season...I swam club in the summer and was visiting colleges, getting ready to swim in college.”
While senior nights are usually the last home meet of the season, that meet is the Region V Championships this year (Oct. 30-31), hosted by JDHS and under Alaska School Activities Association rules, cannot be a home team’s senior night.
“What has impressed me and the other coaches most is how hard the athletes have worked over the last few weeks and how quickly they have come together as a team,” JDHS head coach Amber Kelly said. “We have a great mix of returning athletes and newer athletes, and I have really enjoyed watching them push one another and support each other. Their effort, attitude and willingness to be coached have made for a really strong start to the season... We are really excited to open the competitive season at home. The athletes have put in a tremendous amount of work already, and this weekend will give us our first opportunity to see where we are, celebrate that work and identify where we can continue to improve.”
The JDHS Invitational meet starts at 6 p.m. Friday and continues Saturday at 3:15 p.m. JDHS’ 17 seniors will be honored on Saturday after the races.
“I am excited for regions and the team dynamic here,” JDHS senior co-captain Lena “Maddox” Rasmussen said. “To prepare for that I have been swimming club year-round all offseason.”
She said being a captain “means to bring the team together in love and community.”
Seniors on the JDHS team include Kaden Aldrich, Moira Bahn, Easton Berger, Alexander Davis, Joshua Edwards, Bailey Fisher, Chedi Giron, Amy Liddle, Miller, Brady Newport, Benjamin Pallenberg, Samuel Pallenberg, Rasmussen, Avery Smith, Riley Soboleff, Kaelyn Szefler and Adeline Williams.
“I am excited to watch this team improve over the season,” co-captain Edwards said. “I am excited for the meets, just watching people swim fast, try hard and just being their best self…Over the offseason, I swam club as much as I could, and I started lifting a bit more and I tried to eat a little better than I have in past seasons, just trying to better myself over the offseason so I can be the best I can be…It means a lot to be a captain. I am really excited. I know a lot of these guys on the team. I know they have a lot of trust in me. I just really want to give back to this team I have been swimming on for a long time. I just want to show them my appreciation for being captain. I just want to do everything I can to better this team and make it the best team possible.”
Competing at state were Aldrich (50 free), Edwards (200 IM, 100 breast), Fisher (50 free), Liddle (200 IM, 100 fly, 200 MR), Miller (100 fly, 100 breast, 200 MR), Rasmussen (200 free, 500 free), Smith (200 IM, 100 fly), R. Soboleff (200 IM, 100 breast) and Szefler (100 free, 100 back). Liddle and Miller were part of a new 200 medley relay state record, and Liddle and Szefler a 400 free relay state title.
Diving seniors Berger, Bahn, Davis and Williams competed at state, and this season they welcome classmate Newport and freshman Traeus Mateo to the boards.
“I am excited to see my fellow divers and swimmers just excel and do their best,” co-captain Berger said. “I am just excited for regions and state. I want everyone to do well so that hopefully they can make it there, and I get to see them go to their max level. For me to be a captain means, like, equality and making sure swimmers and divers are getting the same things and are just working together and just being a team instead of two separate teams.”
Juniors on the JDHS team include Axel Boily, Mae Ellen Crocker and William “Liam” Kiessling. Kiessling competed at state in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke. His back was the state’s fastest qualifying time across all regions.
“I am excited about the season because of the meets,” co-captain Kiessling said. “They are always a fun time. Regions and state will be awesome this year with a bunch of fast people coming up. I have prepared by swimming club in the offseason and making sure I ate a little healthier and a little more to bulk up for the season. Being a captain means the team really trusts me to lead them and to help them through the season. It really means a lot that they put their trust in me.”
Sophomores on the JDHS team include Saana Amundson, Sarah Anderson, Keagan Andrews, Katylina “Katya” Foy, Ellinore Higgins, Augustine Kvasnikov, Natalie MacKinnon, Madeline Rose “Maddie” Manlulu, Ila Mannino, Marian Morrison, Levi Phelps, Brooks Pinney, Hannah Rachel Plang, Cora Soboleff, Brook Taintor, Henry Thatcher, Clara Van Kirk and Annabelle Woodruff.
Competing at state were Foy (50 free, 100 back), C. Soboleff (200 free, 500 free), Phelps (200 free, 100 fly) and Woodruff (200 free, 100 fly).
Freshmen on the JDHS team include Genevieve Coleman, Josh Ely, Nyah Harris, Kaylin Janz and Traeus Mateo.
Dive coaches Savona Kiessling and Stig Cunningham return.
“We have a couple new people on the board so we have been doing a lot of fundamentals,” coach Kiessling said. “We have always spent quite a bit of time on fundamentals at the beginning of the season — even when you have seasoned divers like we have. But because we don't dive year-round they need to have some time to get back their balance, to get centered. I am excited about the season, because I have so many seniors graduating — and that is sad, but it is also really fun. This is their last chance to tackle dives that they have wished they had all high school. So this is our last chance. Sometimes that gives you that extra push to do it. One of our new divers is a senior, so this will be his only year doing it and that is exciting. But I have a freshman who is also just starting out and is already catching on really fast, and I am really excited about his potential on the team.”
Assisting head swim coach Kelly are 2020 JDHS graduate Mesa Moran and 2015 JDHS graduate Dakota Isaak. Kelly, a 2008 JDHS graduate, swam at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, Moran at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Isaak at Boise State. Isaak coached at Boise State, then at swim clubs in Idaho and Hawaii, and as a strength coach in Georgia.
“Preseason has been great,” Isaak said. “Throughout the summer we were doing team hikes and just getting to know one another. Then in early August we jumped right into intense training. They have been working really hard and we are just really excited to see that work pay off this season...This is my first high school coaching experience. I always loved the high school season because of all the travel and you get really close with your teammates. And you only have 12 weeks so everybody is just so gung-ho…Amber graduated about seven years before me. But when I was younger, she was the fast high schooler that I admired. So it is really fun coaching with her. And I swam with Mesa. She was five years younger, but we swam club together.”
The coaches have the Glacier Swim Club connection, in which older swimmers walk younger ones through the system. Amber shepherded Dakota, Dakota shepherded Mesa.
“Yeah, it is really fun,” Isaak said. “We mesh well and we have a lot of fun on deck, and I think the kids feed off of that energy...It is so fun. I always dreamed of coaching my home team. I just never thought I would move home. So to have the opportunities, honestly, is so amazing and I am loving every second.”
In 2014, Ciera Kelly, Isaak, Mia Ruffin and Rielly Walsh set the girls medley relay state record of 1:46.75. That record was broken last season by senior Valerie Peimann, Miller, Liddle and junior Lily Francis in 1:46.03. Peimann also took state in the 100 free, 100 breast and the 400 free relay (with Liddle, Szefler and Francis) and was named Outstanding Female Competitor. Francis added a state title in the 50 free.
JDHS won both the girls’ and boys’ Region V team titles last season, and the girls went on to be runner-up at state and the boys placed sixth.
Kiessling, Edwards, Phelps and Aldrich are Region V 4x50 medley relay defending champs. Also defending Region V relay titles, Liddle and Miller were part of the girls 4x50 medley relay; Fisher, Foy and Woodruff part of the girls 4x50 free relay; and Liddle part of the girls 4x100 free relay.
Defending individual Region V titles are C. Soboleff (200 & 500 free), Liddle (200 IM, 100 fly), Bahn (dive) and Kiessling (100 back).
“We have a handful of returning Region V individual and relay champions, as well as returning athletes from our state championship performances last year,” coach Kelly said. “While we are proud of what those athletes accomplished, I am really looking forward to seeing who steps up this season and makes a splash of their own. We have a lot of talent across both swimming and diving, and I would really like the focus this year to be on what we can accomplish together as a team rather than on any one individual.”
JDHS will swim at Ketchikan, Sept. 18-19; at Petersburg, Oct. 2-3; at Sitka, Oct 16-17; and host the Region V Championships, Oct. 30-31. The state championships are at Anchorage’s Bartlett High School pool, Nov. 6-7.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at sports@juneauindependent.com
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