A young Northeast Range/Ely girls swimming team is taking steps forward in the water.
Visiting Rock Ridge edged the Nighthawks 4942 on Tuesday, while Mesabi East swam away with a 60-34 victory in a Sept. 4 encounter.
The Nighthawks were competitive in both meets against more experienced teams.
“The girls are working hard at practice, so we are swimming a little tired,” said NRE Head Coach Cheri DeBeltz. “But overall it’s going well.”
Rock Ridge piled up points early on in the meet at Babbitt, with Paige Robillard winning both the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley and Samantha Bartovich taking both the 200 and 500 freestyles.
NRE’s lone competitive first-place finish came in the 100 backstroke as Tuuli Koivisto finished in 1:17.89.
The remaining Nighthawk wins came in events in which Rock Ridge had faster swimmers in exhibition.
Top-three finishers for NRE were as follows:
• 200 medley relay - 2. Via DeBeltz, Jorden Borchert, Koivisto, Alyssa Ice, 2:17.59;
• 200 freestyle - 2. De-Beltz, 2:22.37;
• 200 individual medley 2. Koivisto, 2:53.29;
• 50 freestyle - 2. Ice, 28.71; 3. Borchert, 30.67;
• 100 butterfly - 3. Lindsay Israel 1:36.66;
• 100 freestyle - 1. Ivy Ohlhauser, 1:09.79;
• 500 freestyle - 2. De-Beltz, 6:19.88;
• 200 freestyle relay - 1. Borchert, DeBeltz, Koivisto, Ice, 2:01.97; 2. Israel, Ohlhauser, Evelyn Moran, Lucy Luthens, 2:04.99;
•100 backstroke - 1. Koivisto, 1:17.89; 3. Moon Vetos-Keen, 1:32.78;’
• 100 breaststroke - 3. Borchert, 1:30.35;
• 400 freestyle relay - 1. Ohlhauser, Israel, Borchert, Luthens, 4:42.99.
In the junior varsity race, Moran (100 individual medley) and Raegan Borchert (300 freestyle) had individual wins, while second-place finishes went to Nicole Freking (300 freestyle) and Luthens (100 breaststroke).
One of the highlights of the matchup with Mesabi East came in the 200 freestyle relay, as DeBeltz, Jorden Borchert, Koivisto and Ice combined to win in 1:59.91, getting past a Mesabi East foursome by just over a second.
That was the Nighthawks’ only win of the afternoon, although DeBeltz pulled individual runner-up showings in both the 200 (2:19.97) and 500 (6:34.06) freestyle events.
Ice also had two runner- up finishes, placing second in both the 50 (28,95) and 100 (1:07.48) freestyles.
Koivisto (1:20.24) was second in the 100 backstroke and Jorden Borchert had the same finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:29.27).
The 200 medley relay team of Koivisto, DeBeltz, Ohlhauser and Ice wound up second in 2:22.95, while individual thirds went to Luthens (200 freestyle), Koivisto (200 individual medley), Israel (100 butterfly), Ohlhauser (100 freestyle) and Maddie Johnson (100 breaststroke).
Freking (200 freestyle), Raegan Borchert (300 freestyle) and Vetos-Keen (100 backstroke) had junior varsity firsts.
The swimmers get their first taste of multi-school competition Saturday during a meet at Hibbing.
