Triumph and tragedy

The Shelton girls swim team finished second at the District IV 2A girls swim meet on Nov. 3 and 4 at the Shelton High School pool.

The 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay team of Lelia Ollenburg, Madeline Allred, Kaylin Mutoli and Abbi Sachs won each race.

Ollenburg won the 100-yard butterfly, dropping three seconds and setting a school record.

The four swimmers are getting ready to swim at the state 2A girls swim meet at 6:15 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday at King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team is ranked third and the 400-yard freestyle relay is ranked second going into state.

Nine seniors are on the team, including the four swimmers on the relay team headed for state. The four swimmers have been through a lot, not just in the pool, but in life.

This senior class started high school in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This senior class, we gained them by being able to connect with them through practice," Shelton coach Chad Youngquist told the Journal. "The WIAA allowed, where the world was kind of saying you don't get to do anything, that was good. They have progressed and we've got some real talent within this group. If they don't have a pool at their school, they didn't get the same opportunity because if they had a public pool, nobody got to swim. Ours is a school pool so we got to follow the WIAA rules because I have the keys."

The pool was closed for half of the season last year to be improved. Personal lives within 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 emphasis 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 enjoying this and enjoying being 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 beginning 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 200-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 seniors, 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 favorite years I've swam. Every day is fun and practicing, everybody is super goofy and energetic and everybody is really supportive on the team."

She competed in the individual 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 really evolved a lot this year," Mutoli said.

Her goal is to be a sub 55.89 in the 100-freestyle and place top three in relays and individual events.

"I'm still in denial with everything 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 not set in yet that I'm a senior."

Mutoli plans to swim in college but has not committed yet, but after state, she plans to figure out where she wants to commit to. She is looking at Division II schools in Colorado and Connecticut.

Ollenburg is seeded sixth in the 200-yard individual medley 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 probably the most seriously," Ollenburg 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 University of Puget 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 is seeded 15th. She said her senior year has gone well, and as the last leg of the relay team, she enjoys being the last leg when they 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 really well so I think it's probably 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 swimming in college, and she does think she will miss it once the season is over Sachs is considering the University of Washington and Central Washington University.

When asked by the rest of the relay team, they all pointed to Sachs as being the funniest person on the team.

"It makes me feel happy," Sachs said in reaction to being named the funniest on the team.

Madeline Allred is seeded seventh in the 50-yard freestyle 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 prepared 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. They've 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 if I would be as successful today as I am without them."

She said she likes swimming 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 of feels right," Allred said. "This will be the perfect ending."

She is still applying to colleges, and mainly applying to schools in California. Her ideal school is the University of Southern California.

It's a long way from Shelton and away from team coach Youngquist, according to Allred. The four seniors acknowledged Chad and co-coach Rob Phelan have been great coaches to swim for.

"They've been so supportive 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 swimming even when times have been hard."

Shelton had the highest finish in school history last year with ninth place. The four seniors 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.

"If we're going to teach them something, it's through adversity that coming together 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 nation 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 doing 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."

Author Bio

Matt Baide, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
Email: [email protected]

• Email: [email protected]