Sister Duo Makes Swim State

Being competitive in high school sports is a huge part of being an athlete, especially when it comes to the Wilson sisters on the girls swim team who worked together to swim at state this season.

Sophomore Helen Wilson and senior Irene Wilson have both been swimming for HUHS since their freshmen year. And just like all of their previous swim seasons they both qualified for the 2020 state meet.

Helen believes that her biggest accomplishment this season was qualifying for the state meet. Helen swam the 200 yard medley relay and the 200 yard freestyle relay.

Irene found her time in the 50 yard freestyle was her biggest accomplishment. “I was really happy, the time I went in the 50 free was a lifetime best for me,” Irene said. Irene placed tenth in her race with a time of 23.98 seconds at the state meet.

Sophomore Lucie Smith was meant to be a part of the Wilson sisters’ relay but was quarantined and could not compete at the state meet. “We made the best of it,” Helen said. Senior Rylie Christnovich subbed in Smith’s place.

“We all had a good time and even though it wasn’t as strong of a relay as we were hoping for, I think we all gave it our all,” Irene said. The girls placed 15th in the 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1:55.58, and 16th place for the 200 yard free style relay with a time of 1:45.03.

Head coach Troy Hagen found that Irene swam through adversity dealing with her shoulder injury. “There were many times she was noticeably in pain, but trained through it,” Hagen said. He noted that Helen had trained extremely well this season.

Hagen thought the Wilsons’ state performances went great. “I think both Irene and Helen did fantastic individually. The success they saw at the end of the season is right where I hoped they would be,” Hagen said.

One of Helen’s goals is to break a school record for either a relay or an individual event. “I wanna get my name up [on the record board] before I graduate,” Helen said. As of right now Irene has no plans on continuing to swim after high school.

Having each other on the team has helped keep the girls working towards similar goals. “[Having a sister] definitely keeps me competitive because I don’t want my little sister to beat me,” Irene said.

“I wanna be the little sister that beats the older sister,” Helen said.