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Alphin: Star swimmer eagerly embraces a new sport
Lanie Alphin picked up a lacrosse stick for the first time as a senior.
For all she knew, it worked like a javelin.
That naiveté didn’t keep Alphin from developing into an important player on the Wakefield School girls lacrosse team, though, and she even helped the Owls (4-7) qualify for the VIS state tournament.
It was those accomplishments on the lacrosse field and her longstanding status as a standout swimmer that made Alphin the 2009 Fauquier Times-Democrat Girls Athlete of the Year from Wakefield.
As co-valedictorian of the 2009 class, Alphin was certainly a quick learner with a textbook in hand, but the speed with which she developed skills on the lacrosse field during her first season of play was equally impressive.
“She approached lacrosse the same way she attacks swimming and academics,” Wakefield lacrosse coach Mary Beth Scott said. “She put herself in it head-first and worked weekends and in practice to get herself to the level of other girls.”
A substitute on offense, Alphin’s playing time steadily increased through the season, and she eventually became one of Scott’s first players off the bench.
“That’s kind of remarkable,” Wakefield swim coach Betty Beamon said. “She’s fantastic....She’s a very hard worker; a good role model.”
Alphin didn’t play the first game of the lacrosse season due to an illness, but she got on the field in game two and became a regular contributor throughout 2009.
“I kind of expected to be a bench-warmer. I didn’t even know how a lacrosse game worked,” Alphin said. “I picked up a stick and was like, “What do I do with this? Throw it?’”
“I was surprised how quickly you can learn the fundamentals. I ended up not doing that bad.”
A longtime swimmer, Alphin’s success in the pool as a senior was more predictable. She was named co-MVP of the Delaney Athletic Conference and qualified for the VIS state meet for the fourth-consecutive season, finishing 15th in the 200-yard individual medley and 17th in the 100 backstroke. Her backstroke time of 1:06.18 was a personal-record, more than one second better than her seed time of 1:07.27.
More importantly, Alphin swam well enough in the 200 IM preliminaries, a personal-record 2:27.27, to advance to a state finals race for the first time in her career. She swam the 200 IM final in 2:28.53.
“Making finals was really fun. It was one of my goals in high school,” Alphin said. “I was happy with my performance.”
Alphin made the 200 IM final despite having never swum the event competitively prior to this season. Her previous experience at state was in backstroke and freestyle events. She swam the 100 backstroke as a freshman and sophomore, and the 50 freestyle and 100 back as a junior, but she chose to change lanes as a senior.
Having qualified for the 2009 state meet in four events — 50 free, 100 back, 200 IM and 100 butterfly — Alphin needed to narrow her entries to two, the number allotted for each state swimmer.
Alphin said backstroke is her favorite stroke, so entering the 100 back was an easy decision, and then she decided to also swim the 200 IM because her qualifying time was about seven seconds faster than the state standard.
“I thought if I made it by that much I should [try it at states],” Alphin said. “I thought I’d switch it up, and I’m definitely glad I did because that’s the only one I made finals in.”
Alphin and Beamon agreed the senior was successful in 2009 because she stayed submerged in her sport year-round, not only during the high school season.
“She was swimming more often this year,” Beamon said. “She got up every day at 4 a.m. so she was in much better competitive shape and more self confident.”
Alphin kept that schedule as a swimmer for the Curl-Burke Swim Club out of the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center in Manassas. She first joined a club team at age nine and went on to often swim year-round for teams like QDD, although not every year.
“It’s more intense, where you get good training,” Alphin said. “Basically the only way you get really good is swimming with a club team...”See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
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