Homer High School Swimming Coach Bridget Kuhns made a deal with her team last weekend as it traveled to Anchorage for the Dimond Tri-meet Friday, and the Bartlett Invitational Saturday morning.

"I told the team if we get more than 50 percent personal best times, we could go shopping," Kuhns said.

A strong showing in the relays and some dramatic improvement in individual events earned the team a trip to the mall and some kudos for the coach.

"Just having an incentive sometimes helps," Kuhns said. "A few folks up at Barlett, in the stands, came over to me and said 'You've got a strong team down there (in Homer)'. I'm very proud of this weekend."

At the Diamond Tri Friday the Mariner girls took first in the 400<>yard freestyle relay and second in the 200-yard Medley relay.

The team followed up these performances with a fourth place finish in both events at the Bartlett Invitational Saturday.

The Homer boys took second in both the 200-medley and 400-freestyle relays on Friday, and fifth in each on Saturday against the bigger schools.

Kuhns said many of the swimming teams represented in the Bartlett Invitational have large teams.

"Diamond has more than 90 swimmers," Kuhns said. "That's more than double our size."

Regardless, Kuhns seemed happy with the showing.

"We went to the big city to see how we ranked," she said.

"In my history this is one of the hardest working groups as a whole that I've been around."

In individual events Kevin Wythe won the 200-free on Friday, and placed second in the 200-individual medley and third in the 100-fly on Saturday.

Sophomore Anthony Augusto anchored the boys 200-Freestyle relay team that swam to fifth place on Saturday and earned a fifth in the boys individual 500-Freestyle.

Kuhns said Augusto is one of the top athletes on the team.

"As a freshman Anthony took seventh in the 200-yard freestyle (at state)," Kuhns said. "I'm hoping he finishes up in medal contention this year."

The Mariners boys swimming team is still adjusting to losing six seniors from last year's team. Currently the boys team consists of one senior, one junior and the rest underclassmen.

Kuhns said for some of the freshmen and sophomores, standing up on the blocks next to bigger and stronger seniors from other schools can be intimidating.

"We felt a little naked against those guys," Kuhns said. She said intimidation will be a factor during the state meet this year.

"At state it's very intimidating," Kuhns said. "There is a lot of flexing going on."

Some Homer girls were flexing to personal bests of their own. Freshman Molly Mahan cut five seconds off her time in the 100 <>breast stroke and earned sixth place on Saturday.

Kuhns called the improvement a "stunning performance," especially in such a short race.

Freshman Abbie Marrale cut 30 seconds off her 500-freestyle time and earned eighth place at the Bartlett Invitational.

Lauren Bell continued her strong swimming with a second in the girls 50-free Saturday and fourth in the girls 100-free.

The Mariner swim team will travel north for the Valley Invite this weekend and then to Kenai on Oct. 18.

The Borough Swim Meet will be held Saturday Oct. 25 at Homer High School.