Girls swim & dive: Talented youngsters bring excitement to Renton swim team
Published 2:13 pm Monday, September 14, 2009
With a swim program fighting for numbers, any news is good news.
Renton High swim and dive coach Diane Pavelin credits sustained coverage of Michael Phelps (even though it wasn’t always positive), controversy over new swim suits and other stories that have kept the sport in the spotlight for a new attitude about the program at Renton.
“For better or worse those things kept swimming in the headlines,” Pavelin said.
Renton should have 14 or 15 swimmers this season, with the possibility of moving toward 20. This is after a down year in 2008 when Pavelin had just 10 swimmers.
Not only are numbers improving but so is the talent.
In freshman Eloisa Bautista, the team has a swimmer talented enough to end the 13-year drought of Renton swimmers at state.
“I’ve known about Eloisa for a few years,” Pavelin said. “She’s close to state qualifying in breaststroke, about half a second off.”
Bautista also has solid district times in the 50 and 100 freestyle races.
Fellow freshman Tala Hild should also make an appearance in districts.
“She needs work on her strokes,” Pavelin said. “They’re good but there are things we can work on to make them better.”
Another new swimmer is junior Carina Barnes. In the past, Barnes has competed in cross country during the fall but she made the switch to swimming this year.
Renton’s top returning swimmer is sophomore Lynhda Vuong. Vuong swam on the relay team at districts last year and is the only returning district swimmer.
