Smoother and stronger.

Improved technique and endurance were evident during Port Townsend High School’s latest swim meet for the girls team.

The team headed to Port Angeles to swim at a virtual meet at the Shore Aquatic Center Feb. 27, taking advantage of the 25-yard pool to post regulation swims. PTHS practices in a 20-yard pool with its competition length closer to 18 yards.

Assistant Coach Shannon Minnihan pointed out that swimming is a highly technical sport and swimmers have been focusing on strokes, turns, and starts to improve overall performance.  

“It’s the little things that add up so quickly,” Minnihan said. “We worked on a lot of key points last week and it showed.”

Head Coach Peter Braden was pleased with the team’s effort and times. 

“When you’re working to improve and change your technique you don’t always see faster times but just about everyone swam faster than last week, which was great to see,” he said.

The virtual meet was streamed thanks to Daniel Ferland, music teacher in Port Townsend schools. 

Ferland’s daughter, Magdaline, is a sophomore on the team.

“Daniel is a streaming genius, his virtual concerts are awesome and he offered to help us out,” Braden said. 

Braden highlighted three swimmers in particular for their strong showings. 

Sophomore Adeline Gellert-De-Palma improved in  all of her swims. After her 100-yard butterfly, Gellert-DePalma wasn’t sure about how she did. 

Braden told her she was 8 seconds off, paused as if the time was slower, and then told her she was 8 seconds faster than last week with a time of 1:27.45. 

“Adeline couldn’t believe it. Eight seconds in a 100-yard race is a huge improvement,” said Braden. 

Gellert-DePalma also improved 6 seconds in her 100-yard freestyle relay split (1:15.70) and swam her first 200-yard freestyle, finishing second to fellow Ferland, 2:43.50 to 2:39.08.

Sophomore Melody Douglas also had significantly improved swims from just one week ago, improving her 200-yard individual medley swim from 3:09.60 to 3:03.52. 

“She wasn’t sure about swimming the race,” commented Braden. “Melody was pretty tired but we talked about that’s the time to see what she can do when swimming tired and she swam well.” 

Douglas noted, “I’ve really been focusing on my timing in fly and can tell it’s improving.” 

Douglas improved in her 100-yard breaststroke by more than 5 seconds, swimming a 1:33.62.

Team captain and senior Emillia Nunn swam in her first meet of the season and posted a team’s season-best 100-yard backstroke time of 1:17.68. 

She also swam the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in a time of 29.29, second to senior Mary D’Arcy, 28.12. 

Nunn was disappointed in her technique, especially her turn.

“I know I can swim faster; I’ll focus on my entry and turn next week,” she said.

Braden said Nunn’s time was faster than last year’s in-season times and was happy she wanted to get even faster. Nunn swam the speediest leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:08.00.

The team’s A Relays all had significant drops in time from the previous week. 

The 200-yard medley relay of Nunn, D’Arcy, Douglas, and Jenna Hiegel (senior) improved the team’s season-best time from 3:00.09 to 2:26.32. 

Gellert-DePalma, junior Emma McAdam, sophomore Chloe Lampert, and Ferland’s 200-yard freestyle relay finished in 2:48.60, beating last week’s best time by almost 30 seconds. 

The 400-yard freestyle relay foursome of Nunn, senior Olivia Schmitt, D’Arcy, and Douglas swam a 5:00.87 — besting last week’s performance by just over 27 seconds.

“We’re trying to figure out who’s on what relay for next week’s prelims,” Minnihan said.

Next Saturday, all teams in the region prepare for the culminating meet which will be completed by March 10. 

The first step is prelims, where the top 12 finishers move on to the final meet, to be completed by March 13. 

“It’s such a bizarre year without in-person meets and the district and state meet,” Braden said. “The coaches in our region wanted to give the swimmers the opportunity for a culminating meet, even if it’s held virtually.”