Weems gains two swimming medals at Junior Olympics

April 25, 2008 at 10:51AM AKST

Led by swim coach Robin Kacsh, three swimmers from the Cordova Iceworm swim team competed in the Junior Olympics held April 10-13 in Anchorage.

While a snowstorm on April 10 kept Josh Hamberger and Elaina Allen from their first events, Mylon Weems was already in Anchorage competing in the Geography Bee held the week before.

Weems received a silver medal for the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:09.66, a half-second from the gold. He also brought home a bronze medal for the 100-yard individual medley with the time of 1:13.44.

Weems also earned fifth place in three events: the 50-yard freestyle (27.92), the 100-yard freestyle (1:00.41) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:36.45). Weems also earned sixth place in the 200-yard freestyle (2:16.79).

Hamberger qualified for seven events but was only able to swim three. He received a bronze medal in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:22.04. He placed ninth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:02.99, missing the finals by 0.03 seconds.

He also got 16th place in the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 1:18.08.

Allen qualified for three events but was only able to swim two. She had some tough competition against 31 other girls. In the 100-yard backstroke, she won her heat and placed 13th overall with a time of 1:16.16, taking five seconds off her time. Allen placed 16th overall in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:49.59.

Each of these times is a personal best for the swimmers.

The event featured 24 teams, about 450 swimmers, and bleachers packed with parents and friends.

The team thanked the Cordova community for supporting it through bake sales and swim-a-thons, especially The Native Village of Eyak for funding its travel to the competition.