Olivia Whittier and Jade Tyler may still be in junior high school, but the two Turners Falls High School swimmers will be making their second appearance in the Western Massachusetts Swimming and Diving Championships when they hit the pool at Springfield College Saturday.
The two girls’ are among four Indian individuals to qualify for the WMass Championships. They will be joined on the boys’ side by freshman Cameron Bradley and junior Nick Taylor. Four other swimmers — Melissa Hersey and Allison Wheeler on the girls’ side, and Ed Reipold and Chase Blair with the boys’ side — will also be on hand to compete with the four individuals in the relay races.
The boys’ races begin at 9 a.m. Saturday. The girls’ events start at 4:30 p.m.
“They have worked hard to get to WMass. It’ll be nice to see them swim against good competition and hopefully get some personal-best times,” Turners Falls coach Kelly Liimatainen said.
The four individual qualifiers will compete in six events, as Tyler and Bradley each qualified for a pair. Tyler just got in under the 1 minute, 17 second mark in the 200-yard freestyle to qualify at 2:16.50, good for 22nd place in the 26-person field. Jessie Tobin of St. Joseph’s Central High School is the top seed at 2:01.04. Tyler will also swim in the 500 freestyle, the longest event in the field, as she qualified for the 27-person field in 18th place with a time of 5:56.32. Tobin is also the top seed in the 500 with a time of 5:22.95.
Whittier is the highest seeded of any Turners Falls swimmer, checking into the 100-yard breaststroke with a 10th-place time of 1:17.42. The field of 25 is paced by Monument Mountain Regional High School’s Emma Wilber with a time of 1:11.37. That may be a bit out of reach for Whittier, but if she can shave some time, she might be able to get under the 1:13 mark needed to qualify for the state championships, which would be the first time in years that an Indian swimmer qualified.
Tyler and Whittier will be joined by Hersey and Wheeler in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay, the 200 medley team qualifying in 22nd place, and the 200 free relay qualifying in 23nd place.
Bradley and Taylor each qualified to swim in the 100-yard butterfly on the boys’ side. Bradley clocked in at 19th place in the 30-person field in 1:03.19, while Taylor is the 25th seed in 1:05.64. Nick Whitcomb of Northampton High School leads the field with a time of 52 seconds.
Bradley also qualified to swim in the 100-yard backstroke, which also features 30 swimmers. Bradley is the 24th seed with a time of 1:08.46, while Whitcomb leads the field with a time of 51.73 seconds.
Reipold and Blair will join Bradley and Taylor to swim the 200 medley and 200 free relays. The 200 free relay is seeded 19th and the 200 medley is seeded 21st.