When it comes to school size, Northeast Range and Ely together are no match for Rock Ridge.
Yet Northeast Range/Ely still gave the much larger Rock Ridge Wolverines a battle in Tuesday’s high school girls swimming matchup.
The host Wolverines won the dual meet 83-72, but NRE claimed three first-place finishes and had numerous seconds and thirds in the highly competitive event.
It was another sign of progress for a small, young but steadily improving Nighthawks group.
“Things are going great and I’m proudofeverybody,”saidNREHead Coach Cheri DeBeltz. “Our seasoned girls are coming into stride and our newer girls are definitely showing progress. They’re stepping into bigger events. I can honestly say in years past, we didn’t have kids in the IM or 300 and these girls are like ‘Can we do those events?”
Of the three NRE first-place finishes, Lucy Luthens had a hand in all of them.
The Ely freshman won the 100 breaststroke, finishing in 1:28.48, and downing teammate Maddie Johnson by just over two seconds to give the Nighthawks a one-two finish in that event.
Earlier, Luthens teamed up with Raegan Borchert, Lindsay Israel and Evelyn Moran to win the 200 medley relay in 2:21.65, and the same Nighthawk foursome dominated the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay, winning in 4:30.49.
There was very nearly a third NRE relay win, as the team of Luthens, Israel, Ivy Ohlhauser and Moran placed second in the 200 freestyle relay, coming up just a second shy of victory.
The Nighthawks had six individual second-place finishes. Two were by Jorden Borchert, who was runner-up in both the 200 freestyle (2:26.97) and 100 freestyle (1:08.51).
Johnson was second not only in the 100 breaststroke but the 200 individual medley (3:27.76) as well, with Israel (100 butterfly, 1:23.48) and Raegan Borchert (100 backstroke, 1:27.39) also landing second-place finishes.
Ohlhauser, Nicole Freking, Jorden Borchert and Moon Vetos- Keen formed a second-place 400 freestyle relay in 5:07.86.
Third-place varsity finishes went to Freking (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle), Moran (50 freestyle), Ohlhauser (100 butterfly) and the 200 freestyle relay combination of Jorden Borchert, Raegan Borchert, Maddie Johnson and Olivia Johnson.
“I was actually pleasantly surprised,” DeBeltz said of Tuesday’s meet. “I wasn’t sure what to expect of Rock Ridge as they lost a big contingent of seniors, but we kind of held our own.”
NRE returns to action Sept. 24, at Chisholm.
“We’re looking to gain more experience and confidence,” said DeBeltz.
