Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace hire new swim coaches

Published 9:40 am Friday, February 22, 2008

This will be a season of change for the girls swimming programs at Edmonds-Woodway, Lynnwood, Meadowdale, and Mountlake Terrace.

The biggest changes will be at the top. Longtime Meadowdale coach Ron Martin retired and has been replaced by Wayne McCool. At Mountlake Terrace, Sally Moore has replaced John Traxler, who is taking time off to attend to his growing family.

With the goal of making it to the district and state meets, Meadowdale and Lynnwood swimmers are aiming for success as the pair of 3A schools in the district. Mountlake Terrace and Edmonds-Woodway swimmers will work through the 4A brackets seeking success.

Lynnwood’s fourth-year head coach Mike Caesar is above all happy with the continuing growth of the Royals program.

“In my first year, we had 16 swimmers,” Caesar said. “This year we have 25 turning out and may get as many as 10 more in the first week of school.”

A larger squad not only makes the Royals more competitive, it will take the load off swimmers such as returning junior Mandy Chomos, the lone Lynnwood swimmer to qualify for the Northwest District 3A meet. She is back, swimming her strong event, the 100-yard breaststroke.

Wayne McCool, a Maryland native, stayed close to home for college, attending the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. As a midshipman he was a member of the intercollegiate swimming team. After a career as an underwater explosives expert, he is pursuing a Ph.D in oceanography at the University of Washington.

Around that activity and awaiting the birth of a child, he has taken on the duties of coaching swimming at Meadowdale. While still familiarizing himself with the team, he has seen plenty of commitment and good attitudes among the 34 swimmers on the team. He feels his biggest obstacle is a problem of wealth, finding competitive time for all the swimmers.

With the retirement of Traxler, former assistant Sally Moore has taken the reins of the Mountlake Terrace program. She has 40 swimmers in the program, led by a quartet of seniors: Colleen Conelly, Angie Burliegh, Sam Nick and Raven Harrison.

She has two divers and is currently assembling what she believes will be competitive relay teams. The team goal is to qualify the medley relay team for state. Moore believes that some of her freestylers may also make it to the state meet.

For Edmonds-Woodway coach Rob Kvamme, the best news is that Sarah Spillman, who went to the state 4A meet last year for the Warriors as a sophomore, will be joined by her sister Mary Beth. While Sarah has made her mark as a distance swimmer, the younger Spillman is a sprinter.

Kvamme feels that will boost the strength of his relay teams. He is also expecting strong seasons from Nora Vlasic in the sprints and senior Katie Crawford, particularly in the butterfly.