Those who attended the swim team's home meet Oct. 13 against Kingston were treated to a loud and competitive event. It was the first meet of the season held at Port Townsend's Mountain View Pool, with Klahowya visiting at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20.

“It’s a busy week coming up, with a Tuesday meet in Sequim, Klahowya here on Thursday for Homecoming, and our divisional meet the following Tuesday,” said Peter Braden, Port Townsend High School swim and dive coach.

“We swam well, beating out Kingston in several close races,” said Braden. One outstanding example was Ally McCallum finishing second in the 50 free, out-touching the top Kingston swimmer by eight hundredths of a second. The score was close throughout the meet and tied going into the last relay. Despite their best efforts, the Redhawks’ top relay finished second to Kingston and PT ended up on the short end of an 88-82 score.

The Redhawks were led by co-captains Ismay Gale, winning both the 50 and 100 freestyle and Chloe Hatfield, winning the 100 backstroke. The Redhawks’ third co-captain, Corinne Pierson, swam both of her races against the Buccaneers’ Ironwoman, Claudia Velie. Ironwoman status is given to swimmers qualifying for the state championship in all eight individual swimming events. Pierson finished second to Velie in her events, narrowly getting touched out in the 100 butterfly by 39 hundredths of a second.

Braden was especially pleased with ninth-grader Lilly Montgomery’s progress. “She is now able to swim legal fly, a stroke most struggle with,” he said, “and I’ll admit I took full advantage of it.” Montgomery swam butterfly in the medley relay, the 100 butterfly, and the 200 Individual Medley which includes two lengths of butterfly. Shortly after finishing the grueling Individual Medley, Montgomery told her coach, “That was so fun! Can I do it the next meet?” Braden plans on granting Montgomery her wish.

While the races were announced by their proper yardage (i.e. 100 yard freestyle) and swum the proper number of lengths for a standard 25-yard pool (four lengths for a 100 freestyle), they were held in Mountain View’s shorter length of 18 yards, 22 inches. Kingston coach Pam Manix looked on the bright side and told Braden, “It was fun for our girls to concentrate on simply racing and not on their times.”

“Whenever a team visits we congratulate them on getting best times, even before the meet begins,” Braden added.

Both teams and coaches were pleased with their efforts, and the day was finished deliciously when the Redhawks’ bakers provided both brownies and cookies for the Kingston competitors.