ALL PENINSULA SWIMMING co-MVPs: Port Angeles’ Nadia Cole and Felicia Che combine for 44 top finishes

PORT ANGELES — In picking a Peninsula MVP for girls’ swimming no one girl stood out.

But a pair of swimmers for the Port Angeles Roughriders sure did. In fact, they had nearly identically successful years.

Nadia Cole and Felicia Che are a dynamic one-two punch for the Riders, helping to lead Port Angeles to an eighth-place finish at the State 2A swim meet.

How close are these two in their talent?

Che had 14 individual first-place finishes and 11 first-place finishes as a member of a relay team.

Cole had nine individual first-place finishes and 10 first-place finishes as a member of a relay team.

That’s a combined 44 first-place finishes for the duo.

And Che and Cole usually swam on the same relay teams. The two of them combined in the 200 individual medley relay, along with Kiara Schmitt and Emma Murray, to come in sixth in the state.

Che and Cole combined again in the 400 freestyle to take sixth again, this time with Schmitt and Maggie Martin.

While Che won more individual events during the season, Cole did a bit better at state.

Cole finished fifth in the 200 individual medley and fifth in the 100 breaststroke, while Che finished 13th in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly.

Because of their work together on the Port Angeles relay teams and their contribution to the Roughriders girls swimming program the past three years, Cole and Che have been picked by the Peninsula Daily News as the co-girls swimming MVPs.

“They’re fun to coach. They’re great kids. What I have to do is temper their frustration when they don’t do as well as they want,” Butler said.

Che and Cole said they complement each other well because the strokes that one girl struggles with, the other one specializes in.

“I can’t do the backstroke and she can’t do the [butter]fly,” Che said.

Actually, Cole can do the butterfly, but it is the stroke she struggles with the most. Cole has a huge goal for state next year, one she’s come close to fulfilling two years in a row. She’s trying to become an “Iron Woman” state qualifier, posting times in all eight individual swim events good enough to automatically qualify for the state 2A meet. She’s extremely close to doing it, qualifying in seven out of eight events, in of itself a remarkable achievement. The one event she comes up short in? The 100-yard butterfly.

“It’s nice to have Felicia helping to push me [in the butterfly],” Cole said.

“She’s really close to making it, she just runs out of time at the end of the season,” Che said.

Che and Cole have been swimming together for nearly a decade, since they were eight years old, being part of a very active Port Angeles Swim Club scene.

After years of swimming in the club, the duo splashed on the scene as high school freshmen, being a big part of a Riders swim team that finished a very close second at state and won the state championship in the 200 medley relay.

As sophomores, they were part of a team that finished third at state.

Now, they’re the veterans on the team, having gone to state three straight years. Along the way, they’ve been part of two Port Angeles High School relay records while Cole holds an individual school record in the 200 individual relay.

“They definitely provide leadership, they’re teammates look up to them,” said coach Rich Butler.

“We’re on the other end of things now, ” Che said. Butler also said their skills come together well. “[We’re leaders] more so than in the past. There’s a lot of new girls on the team now.”

“They complement each other well whenever it comes to the relays,” Butler said.

Che said one thing she has enjoyed about the Roughriders swim program is that even the individual swims help the team.

“It’s nice to have that team aspect. It’s nice to know that we’re not just doing it for us,” she said.

Cole has the goal of becoming an Iron Woman next year, but in the bigger picture, their goals for their last year as Roughriders “is just to have fun and place at state,” Cole said.

All-Peninsula swimmers

Other swimmers considered for All-Peninsula girls swimming MVPs.

Sequim’s Mia Coffman had a fantastic season, especially for a freshman, and she will likely continue to be a big part of the Peninsula swimming scene for the next three years.

Coffman was fourth at the staet 2A meet in the 500 freestyle, fifth in the 200 freestyle and helped the 200 freestyle relay team finished seventh along with Sonja Govertsen, Jasmine Itti and Heidi Schmitt.

Govertsen also deserves honorable mention. In addition to her medal on the 200 freestyle relay team, she finished seventh at the state 2A meet in the 50 freestyle and 11th n the 100 freestyle.

Thanks largely to the performances of Coffman and Govertsen, the Wolves finished a solid 11th at the state 2A meet as a team.