Aberdeen won eight of 12 events to defeat Shelton 105-75 in the Bobcats’ final home meet of the season on Wednesday at the Grays Harbor YMCA in Hoquiam.
Senior Anna Weber led the way for Aberdeen, winning both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard butterfly races. Weber, a two-time state champion, won the IM by over five seconds with a time of 2:27.17 and swam the fastest second-leg in the butterfly to win with a time of 1:05.40, edging Shelton’s Alli Sachs (1:06.85) by just over a second.
Aberdeen’s Morgann Waite cruised to a victory in the 500-yard freestyle, winning by more than 20 seconds with a time of 8:11.09.
Bobcat Litzy Orona held off Highclimber Abbi Sachs to take the top spot in the 100 yard backstroke competition, winning by just 1.31 seconds with a time of 1:13.54.
Anna Matisons recorded the only sub-75 second time in the 100 yard backstroke, touching the wall with a time of 1:14.25 to win by nearly 20 seconds.
Aberdeen senior diver Tatum Heikkila defeated teammates Katelyn Ancich and Aria Hoffman in the diving competition with a total score of 147.70.
Aberdeen senior Tatum Heikkila performs a dive during Wednesday’s swim and dive meet against Shelton at Grays Harbor YMCA. Heikkila won the event with a score of 147.70. (Ryan Sparks | The Daily World)
Aberdeen also fared well in the relay events. The Bobcats quartet of Ancich, Weber, Giselle Rojas and Keara Burns won the 200 yard medley relay to open the meet with a time of 2:10.44. The depth of head coach Jan Simons’ Bobcats program was on display in the race as the Bobcats squad of Orona, Matisons, Heikkila and Kennedy Hatton placed second, finishing just 0.13 behind their teammates.
In the 200 yard freestyle relay, the Aberdeen team of Weber, Rojas, Burns and Orona had to make up a near-three second deficit to defeat a Shelton team comprised of Hannah Moore, Kaylin Mutoli, Lelia Ollenburgh and Alli Sachs. A strong freestyle swimming team, Shelton got out to an early lead after the second leg to take control of the race at the halfway mark. But Burns and Orona made up the distance and then some to win with a time of 1:55.83 to Shelton’s 1:57.61.
The match was the last home meet of the season for Aberdeen as the Bobcats will be competing on the road at River Ridge and Shelton high schools next week before competing in a Final 4 Team League Meet on March 20 in Shelton.
For Weber, who won state titles in both her freshman and sophomore years and placed second last season, there was disappointment at not being able to compete for a state title in her senior season, but this season has taught the decorated and highly-touted swimmer to see circumstances in a different light.
“Everyone looks forward to their last season, and I was looking to reclaim my title senior year,” she said. “But honestly, I think the big thing everyone is learning with COVID is to live in the moment and do what you can. I’m so grateful we’ve been able to have a season at all and still get meets for our senior season.”
Without the goal of a state-meet berth to provide motivation, the Bobcats look elsewhere for inspiration.
“Trying to get back in shape from the break, get times down,” Weber said. “That’s my focus right now and after high school. To get my times back down and prepare for college.”
“Having a state meet is a real motivator for kids to raise their level in swimming and how they compete,” said Simons, who is in her 28th season at the helm of the Aberdeen program, which is considered one of the top in the state in the 2A classification. “We’re still shooting for state-qualifying times.”
Typically a no-nonsense coach that expects all her student-athletes to adhere to the rules and expectations, Simons said this season has provided challenges like no other.
“I’m kind of a black-and-white coach. My rules are for everybody. Here’s the rules. Make sure they all know it and they follow the rules or they don’t and here are the consequences,” she said, adding that governing body officials requested coaches allow for more leeway this season due to the COVID pandemic, something she said hasn’t helped her team’s development in a truncated season. “It didn’t serve our team as well as it would have had I been black-and-white. You are a team. You rise and fall together.”
But Simons said she has a great group of student-athletes with state-championship experience in its leadership, and that made her job coaching in this odd season that much easier.
“It has gone so well. … The kids did what they were told,” she said. “They just did it and worked hard and have been fabulous. There was an adjustment period. But they’ve adjusted so well on their own. … They did not allow circumstances to dictate their performance or what they are capable of doing.”
