Posted: 1/22/03

Rangers end four-year drought

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

Forest Lake ended the mother of all losing streaks with a man-sized effort from its boys swimming and diving team last week.

The Rangers secured their first dual win in four years with a consistent effort against the Raiders in taking a 101-85 victory.

Second-year Forest Lake coach Dick Waskey said once the win was imminent, the Rangers were able to bask in the over-due glory of victory.

ìThe Roseville win was incredibly thrilling,î Waskey said. ìWhat made it so exciting was that once we arrived at the pool, (Roseville) had more guys than we thought they would have and we had a couple guys out for the night.

ìWe had to juggle our line-up at the last minute and hope we didnít make a mistake.î

Apparently the Rangers didnít make any mistakes as they bolted to a 21-9 lead after two events and never looked back.

Roseville did pull within 33-29 after the fourth event ñ the 50-yard freestyle ñ but the Rangers were able to count on one of their biggest strengths to pull away.

Forest Lakeís diving crew of Brian Welch, Ben Johnson and Sam Chaussee placed 1-2-3, respectively, and that was followed by the Rangers 1-3-4 finish in the 100 butterfly by Corey Docken, James Kassel and Jake Morr to put Forest Lake ahead 57-37.

From that point on, Roseville was never able to cut the Rangers lead to under 15.

A total of 17 competitors for Forest Lake had life-time bests against Roseville. The victory was the first ever by several members of the team.

ìWe only have a handful of guys who remember when we were last winning, so this meet is going to be very memorable,î Waskey said.

Forest Lake got first-place finishes from its 200 medley relay team of Chris Duff, Grant Robinson, Docken and Jacob Waskey as well as from Jeff Sandager in the 200 freestyle and Sam Gort in the 500 freestyle.

Second-place finishes were turned in by Gort in the 200 freestyle, Sandager in the 100 freestyle and John Fahnhorst in the 100 backstroke.

In the junior varsity portion of the meet, Forest Lake earned a 105-50 win over the Raiders.

Ian Simpson placed first in the 200 and 500 freestyle for the Rangers while Mark Sandager was first in the 200 individual medley and Tom Kelly was first in the 50 freestyle.

Dillon Huddalla was first in diving while Tyler Sperry placed first in the 100 butterfly and Luke Kubitschek was first in the 100 breaststroke.

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