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Page 18 — Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023
Swim: Team says it is closer than ever during final year
continued from page
The pool was closed for half
of the season last year to be
improved. Personal lives with
in the swim team had tragic
incidents occur. But through it
all, they had their swim team
family.
Youngquist said it is going
to be harder to see this group
of seniors graduate because of
_what they’ve been through and
how well they’ve performed in
the pool.
“I haven’t put my empha»
sis on hard training as much
as I might have because I
knew with a group that’s gone
through so much, part of the
emphasis has to be them en-
joying this and enjoying be—
ing together and I saw real
quick at the beginning of the
season that there was a cloud,
they’ve gone through a lot,”
Youngquist said. “At the begin—
ning of the season, I recognized
that this needed to be fun for
them to be at the end of the
season and take it serious and
want to win and want to do
well at the end. I took it very
seriously but I couldn’t take it
seriously with them so I hope
we got enough training in and
did enough of the right things
so that we can pull it together.
To me, it feels like we’re where
we need to be.”
Youngquist said the team
feels good mentally going into
the state tournament, its last
together, and each brings
something distinct to the
family.
Mutoli is seeded seventh
in the ZOO-yard freestyle and
sixth in the 100—yard freestyle.
She said her senior year has
gone much better than her
previous three years in staying
healthy to be able to swim.
The team is closer than ever
in their final year together.
“A lot of us, all of our
niors, pretty much have known
each other since fourth grade
because we all did swim club
together and just all kind of
grown up and gotten really
close,” Mutoli said. “I definitely
think our team is one of the
closest teams you’ll ever see.
This is definitely one of my fa-
vorite years I’ve swam. Every
day is fun and practicing, ev-
erybody is super goofy and en—
ergetic and everybody is really
supportive on the team.”
She competed in the individ-
ual medley and the backstroke
to begin her swim career, but
then she tried the 200‘yard
freestyle, recorded a good time,
and the rest is history.
“My freestyle stroke has re—
ally evolved a lot this year,”
Mutoli said.
Her goal is to be a sub 55.89
in the IOU-freestyle and place
top three in relays and indi-
vidual events.
“I’m still in denial with ev~
eiything that’s happening. I
feel like I’m still a freshman,
it’s really weird,” Mutoli said.
“I feel like COVID has made
my sense of time super wonky.
I’m still having fun and it
has notyset in yet that I’m a
senior.”
Mutoli plans to swim in col—
lege but has not committed
yet, but after state. she plans
to figure out where she wants
to commit to. She is looking at
lilivir-zion ll schools in Colorado
Clockwise from top, Shelton H
. «a.
igh School’s Leila Ollenburg, Madeline Allred, Kaylin Mutoli and Abbi
Sachs will compete
N we
at the 2A state swimming and diving championships this week. Journal photos
by Shawna Whe/an
and Connecticut.
Ollenburg is seeded sixth in
the ZOO-yard individual med—
ley and third in the 100-yard
butterfly. Butterfly is her best
stroke because she enjoys it
the most.
“My freshman year, I
begged the coaches to let me
do butterfly and I’ve stuck
with it since,” Ollenburg said.
“It makes me feel powerful. I
think it suits me naturally on
top of I already really like the
stroke.”
In the relays, Ollenburg
likes going first because she
gets a little bit eager if she
goes any other time.
The relay team, including
Ollenburg, labeled her as the
most competitive swimmer on
the team.
“We take swimming prob—
ably the most seriously,” 0]-
lenburg said. “We get a little
upset if we don’t hit our best
times and we go over all the
state rankings and all this
stuff and figure who we can
knock down a little bit on the
list and focus on the things we
can do to move up.”
She plans to swim in college
and has received a letter of
recruitment from the Univer-
sity ofPuget Sound, where she
hopes to continue swimming.
It has and has not hit her that
this is the final meet with her
swim family.
“I know that’s reality, but I
haven’t accepted that. It will
hit after the season is done,”
Ollenburg said.
Sachs qualified for the 100-
yard backstroke and i seeded
35th. She said her senior year
has gone well, and as the last
leg ofthe relay team, she en-
joys being the last leg when
tl'iey have a big lead.
“If it’s close, I’m like, oh
man, I’m going to mess it up
for everyone now,” Sachs said.
“The energy has been good.
The happiness has been good.
The performances have been
good, everyone is bonding re—
ally well so I think it’s prob-
ably been the best high school
season. IgnOring performance—
wise, this is the happiest
season.”
She said they all hang
out outside of school and
swimming.
“Everyone on this team feels
so comfortable with each other.
I trust all of them, they are
definitely a family,” Sachs said.
Sachs said she tries not to
think about this being her final
year with this team, but senior
night forced her to think about
it and she bawled her eyes out. .
She does not plan on swim—
ming in college, and she does
think she will miss it once the
season is over Sachs is consid—
ering the University of Wash-
ington and Central Washing-
ton University.
When asked by the rest of
the relay team, they all pointed
to Sachs being the funniest ’
person on the team.
“It makes me feel happy,”
Sachs said in reaction to be
ing named the funniest on the
team.
Madeline Allred is seeded
seventh in the 50-yard free-
style and eighth in the 100—
yard freestyle.
“It’s gone great so far. I
haven’t had a personal best
but I’m getting back to where
I was and I’m having so much
fun with the girls here,” Allred
said.
Allred has had to balance
many different things going on
in her life, including working
and doing Running Start full—
time. She said she’s glad she
did it because she feels pre-
pared for her future.
At least time with the swim
team has been a fun reprieve
from her busy schedule and
difficult times.
“It has been the most fun.
I never would have imagined
how much fun I could have
with these girls,” Allred said.
“They are my best friends, my
family and we all love each
other. Thefve been there for
me every time that I’ve needed
them with a place to stay or
food to eat or hardships and
emotional support, I don’t
know ifI would be as suc—
cessful today as I am without
them.”
She said she likes swim-
ming freestyle because she’s
good at it. Allred has swam all
of the strokes but once she got
to high school, she focused on
freestyle because of the relays.
She realized she was good at it
and kept going.
Allred is not planning to
swim in college, but she does
plan to swim for fun for the
rest of her life and to stay in
shape. She is interested in
coaching in the future.
“It feels weird because
it’s been a part of my life for
basically my whole life but
it kind offeels right,” Allred
said. “This will be the perfect
ending.” _
She is still applying to col—
leges, and mainly applying
to schools in California. Her
ideal school is the University of
Southern California.
It’s a long way from Shel—
ton and away from team
coach Youngquist, according
to Allred. The four seniors ac—
knowledg sd Chad and co-coach
Rob Phelan have been great
coaches to swim for.
“They’ve been so support- '
ive of all of the swimmers, not
just in the pool but as people.
They really care about us and
you can see that,” Allred said.
“That’s what I think makes
great coaching is coaching the
whole person and they’ve done
a great job at inspiring us and
motivating us to keep swim-
ming even when times have
been hard.” .
Shelton had the highest fin—
ish in school history last year
with ninth place. The four se—
niors hope to add to that legacy
and set another record.
Whether they achieve that
or not, the nine seniors on the
team and the four competing
at state this weekend are going
to do well in something bigger
than sports: life.
“Ifwe’re going to teach
them something, it’s through
adversity that coming to-
gether and being together
and going through it together,
you can overcome and achieve
great things,” Youngquist
said. “Not to include the rest
of the nation or the world, the
rest of the world and the na-
tion are failing miserably at
this and these girls are not.
They are different people but
they are banding together,
sometimes staying focused on
their goals and sometimes not
but always doing it together
and that was the thing that
kept them on the path. Now
I’m finding when we’re at the
end, they’re focusing and do—
ing what’s important and I
believe that they are ready
to perform and I believe that
they will do amazing things
at state and perform really
well.”