Flagstaff High School

Making Waves

Sienna Chitwood

The Flagstaff High School Swim Team held an ‘Invitational’ meet on September 6th 2025; the invitational was held at NAU from 12:00 to 4:30 pm. This meet was very beneficial to many of the Flag High swimmers for establishing state qualifying times so early in the season. Everyone on the team had to compete. The JV swimmers had to compete in at least one event and the varsity swimmers had to compete in no less than three events. Swimmers are striving for ‘drop’ time, which means the swimmers want to shave off time from what it originally was. A lot of times were dropped during this invitational. Sydney, a junior on the varsity team who has been swimming for 2 years swam in the 200-freestyle relay, 200-freestyle, and 100-freestyle. Sydney dropped significant time on her 200-freestyle race as she dropped 10 seconds during her heat. Sydney said after her race that, “I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out, after it was hard to breath but accomplished.” Another very accomplished swimmer is varsity freshmen swimmer Sloane Sahl, who has four years of experience. Sloane swam in the 400-freestyle relay, 200 medley relay, 100-breaststroke, and the 200-freestyle. After Sloane’s race, she expressed that she was “really nervous, after I was super tired and I thought, I was dying to say the least”.

The head coach of the JV team coach Eichner is also the Spanish 1 and 2 teacher. She has been coaching swimming for two years. She was a competitive swimmer “when I was 9 to 18, so for like 9 years.”  Coach Eichner says that she expects “the swimmers to try their best and to drop time, support each other, and have fun”. The coaches have really expected swimmers to do their best and that is some of the reasons we have so many qualifying times this season, and we can expect a lot more times.

The Flag Swim Team is having a dual meet in Prescott on the 18th of September and then they have an invitational in Phoenix called ‘Brophy’ on the 19th of September. The Brophy Invitational Meet is the where the Flag High Swim Team can push outs more state qualifying times.