Six swim teams from throughout Southeast Alaska competed in over 100 events at the First City Invitational swim meet in Ketchikan, including the club from Wrangell that recently lost several members in a deadly landslide. It was a bittersweet event — the loss of those swimmers has affected clubs throughout the region.
Before the Ketchikan meet started a moment of silence was held for those who died in the Nov. 20 landslide in Wrangell, including Otto Florschutz and the Wrangell Swim Club’s Heller family — parents Timothy and Beth, and their children Kara, Derek and Mara. Kara and Derek were in the club, and Mara was inspired by her siblings to join.
Jamie Roberts is the coach and owner of the Wrangell Swim Club. She said 11-year-old Kara and 12-year-old Derek had been swimming with the club for a few years, but were unable to compete until this year. Their first meet was at an annual event called November Rain held in Petersburg just 10 days before the landslide.
“It lit a fire in them, Kara especially,” Roberts said. “She swam a 500 (yard freestyle) at that meet. I think she was the only one to swim it. And came back and was like, ‘What’s the longest event that you can do?’ And I said, well that’s the 1650. And she said, ‘Okay, that’s what I’m gonna do in Juneau in the Spring.’”
The 1650 is a one-mile endurance swim. Roberts said about a week later Kara started practicing for the event with the help of her mom acting as a lap counter.
Roberts said Derek was really starting to hit his peak, getting stronger and building confidence, and that he performed well at the Petersburg meet.
“I actually had him swim on a relay team at November Rain with the older kids, my high-schoolers,” she said. “He was kind of nervous about it but he really held his own and they got some first place places for both their medley relay and their free-style relay. So I think that was really a sweet moment as well.”
Roberts said 16-year-old Mara Heller was her siblings’ biggest fan, cheering them on loudest at the Petersburg meet. Shortly after, Mara wanted to be part of the team.
“Her mom Beth had messaged me and she’s like, ‘Can Mara join the team? She’s asking me like five times a day if she can,’” she said. “So I told her, I said, ‘Yeah. Send her to practice with Derek and Kara.’ I was getting together some swimsuits for her and then the slide happened. So that was a missed opportunity for us to be able to welcome her to the team as a swimmer. But she definitely was their number-one fan.”
Roberts said with COVID and an extended pool shutdown, this was the first in many years that the Wrangell club has been able to compete. Because they missed so many opportunities, she said she told the kids at the beginning of the season that any meet they wanted to go to, if they signed up for it, she would take them. Even if it was only one or two swimmers.
“Kara and Derek were the first to sign up for this particular meet, the First City Invitational, and I was like, ‘Oh! I guess we’re going to Ketchikan,’” she said.
Roberts said with holiday performances the weekend of the meet, she wasn’t sure anyone would sign up.
“I was really glad when they signed up, and then I got a few other kids that said they would come as well. It was really hard when I had to go in and remove them from this meet because they’re the reason that we were gonna come here anyway.”
Even though the tragedy still lingers, Roberts said it’s important to keep on living, and because Kara and Derek wanted to be at the Ketchikan meet, the team would be there for them. She said events like this give the kids a sense of normalcy, and is part of the healing process.
“I really just think being here is really important for us, and to feel the support of our swim community,” she said. “We were all just in Petersburg. A lot of these same kids were there with them. You start to make friends. And just feeling that support from our surrounding communities and our swim family is also part of our healing process as well. So, just happy to be here.”
The final events of the meet, the girls and boys 500-yard freestyle, were dedicated to the Hellers, especially Kara, the event she planned to swim.
In memory of the Heller family, Roberts announced she will swim the 1650 at Southeast Champs in Juneau this spring.
Ketchikan will be hosting the 2024 Alaska Swimming Age Group Championships this February. Over 300 swimmers throughout the state, age 14 and under, are expected to compete.