AOTW: Eagle River’s Wes Mank breaks own record, named Most Outstanding Swimmer at state meet

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - How did Eagle River’s Wes Mank follow up his record-breaking performance at last year’s state championship meet? By smashing his previous time and being named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer this year.

The senior standout swimmer reset the boys 100-yard backstroke state record Saturday with a time of 48.65 seconds, breaking the previous record set by him at the 2023 state meet (49.37) and at the preliminary race at the Bartlett Pool the day before.

”I came in prelims, I was just kind of feeling it out, I went kind of smooth the first 50 (yards), picked it up the second 50, and I got under it, which kind of surprised me,” Mank said, who grew up in Craig before joining Eagle River his sophomore year.

”It means a lot, it is a big deal. I have broke state records as I’ve come up through Craig. I think the relays probably mean more at this point, getting to do that with the guys that I train with every day, that is a big deal.”

In the relay events, Mank helped the program set another state record, this time in the boys 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:33.57, before also taking gold as the anchor of the state championship-winning 200-yard freestyle relay team at 1:26.84.

Mank also won a state title in the 200 IM — which he describes as an “off event” — clocking in at 1:51.53, continuing to accomplish things that still even catches his coach by surprise.

”Sometimes, he puts out swims that I don’t even prepare myself for, and so I have to continue to do by job, my research to make sure I can do everything I can to make him better,” Eagle River swim coach Bryce Carpenter said. “It’s an unspoken thing at our practice that if you’re in his lane, you’re going to work ... he is a beast that will do anything to win and I am just glad that he is getting the recognition that he deserves.”

Mank was ultimately named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer for his performance as he is off to swim at Division I’s University of Nevada Las Vegas next year, but not before one more club season with Chugiak Aquatics to see if he can’t break any more of his own records.

”It’s great,” Mank said of the swim scene in the state. “It is a small community, but everybody knows everybody, everybody supports everybody, I wouldn’t want to swim anywhere else.”

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