OLYMPIA — There’s a new era for girls swimming in Lewis County and South Thurston County.
The combined program of Centralia, W.F. West and Rochester as well as the individual schools of Tumwater and Black Hills High Schools are all ushering in new head coaches this season. Leah Rietema and Cortlynn Opdahl are taking over as leaders of their alma maters at Black Hills and Tumwater, respectively.
Those two began their journeys at Tuesday’s five-team meet held at Evergreen State College that featured Olympia, Aberdeen and Sammamish Lake. No teams scores were kept for the meet.
“I never imagined that I would start coaching Black Hills this early in the game,” Rietema said. “I always wanted to. It feels really special to be back home and back with the Wolves. It is definitely unique.”
Opdahl has just seven Thunderbirds out this year and one of the reasons she was offered and took the job was her desire and passion to increase eyeballs to the sport. She pointed to lack of awareness and lack of funding as the two main reasons.
Tumwater’s school district also does not have its own pool, leaving all home meets to be held at the NAIA institution in Olympia. Opdahl herself didn’t start swimming until her senior year at Tumwater.
“For us to not have a pool, it is so obscure to me,” Opdahl said. “I’m fighting for that. Swimming is one of the (sports) that is underdeveloped in Washington State. Specifically in Lewis and Thurston County. I want to grow the program from seven girls to 20-30 girls.
“All of us have the same mindset which is to grow the sport. There is something powerful about learning together.”
Rietema has a younger Wolves team this fall. The 2018 graduate of Black Hills believes having the balance between setting a standard and making sure the girls are enjoying the sport is beneficial for all involved.
Plus, she gets an added benefit of being able to relate to her team.
“It is coming a little faster and more natural to me,” Rietema said. “I’m just trying to build a relationship with each of the swimmers and I get kind of an inside scoop of how far I can push them and where their goals are.”
Returning state qualifier Makayla Sarsfield finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke and third in the 50-yard freestyle for the T-Birds. Her 50 free time of 29.88 seconds is near her best time from last fall.
Fellow senior Jenna Kalar earned a runner-up placement in the 100 butterfly and was fourth in the 200 individual medley. Those two plus Brailey DePrano and Lily Wagner snared fifth place in the 200 medley relay.
Wagner took fifth in the 500 freestyle and Sarsfield anchored Tumwater’s 400 freestyle relay.
“I pushed them pretty hard this meet,” Opdahl said. “People say progress isn’t linear, but with these girls, it is going to be exponential. They’ve crushed all my workouts I’ve given them. They are going to do extremely well come districts and sub-districts.”
Black Hills was paced by a third place finish from Riona Johnstone in the 100 breaststroke and a fifth place performance by Abby Holbrook in the 100 butterfly. Johnstone and Holbrook were also on its fourth place 200 freestyle relay.
Johnstone’s time was a six-second drop from last year while Holbrook dropped two seconds.
“We did really well,” Rietema said. “I was extremely proud that everyone tried their best. All of our races were really good. I’m trying to feed off of them as much as I can and they’re pretty responsive to me because of that trust.”
