Petersburg’s Viking Swim Club took home dozens of medals from their meet in Sitka this weekend. They swam against Juneau’s Glacier Swim Club, Sitka Barracudas, and the Ketchikan Killer Whales.
19 Vikings traveled to the meet. Altogether, they racked up 40 first place finishes, 28 second place finishes and 17 third place finishes.
Scott Burt coaches the Vikings. He says he’s extremely proud of the whole team — a majority of them improved on their personal best times at the meet.
Burt says that’s especially impressive since many of the team’s swimmers are busy with other extracurriculars — like volleyball, dance, and track. But he says they’re still giving it their all at practice.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the swimmers as a team,” said Burt. “Despite all of their other diverse interests — which I encourage and applaud — they’re still showing up for practice.”
And their effort, he says, is paying dividends. At this weekend’s meet, Ryder Diehl ended up with eight first place finishes and two second place finishes. Bella Miller came in with five first place, four second place, and three third place finishes. Her sister, Tori Miller, had eight first place, two second place, and one third place finish. And it was eight-year-old Carter Griss’ first ever swim meet — he took home six gold medals.
And then, Burt says, 8th grader Lexie Tow really stole the show.
“Lexie Tow was spectacular — she ended up winning the whole thing,” said Burt. “Every single time she swam you know most of the time I think at the very end she still continued to drop her personal best.”
The Vikings success was evident during the last race of the tournament — the 50 meter freestyle. Just eight swimmers made it through the final heat. And six of them were Vikings.
Burt gave a special shout out to Lexie Tow and Hakon Eddy, who were chosen by their peers to be VSC’s team captains.
“They’re providing great leadership for all of our swimmers,” said Burt. “We’ve also implemented something this year where our older swimmers — they’re helping our younger swimmers, being a resource for them. Making sure that they know what events and lanes and heats that they were in, making sure that they made it to the blocks in time, and just encouraging them.”
The swim club will hold a time trial event at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 27th at the community pool, where the viking swimmers will swim against their teammates. The swim club is seeking volunteers to help keep time for the events.
