Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

The Forest Lake swimming and diving team may not win every meet they enter, but it doesnít feel like that day is too far away. What the girls started, but could not finish, on Thursday, Sept. 14 against Cretin-Derham Hall, was most certainly completed on Saturday at the Spring Lake Park Invitational.

Lose the Cretin-Derham meet on the eveningís final relay? On that brings a punch-in-the-stomach feeling when the scores are announced? No big deal. The girls took that 93.5 to 92.5 loss to CDH, appreciated how they had made up more than 30 points on them when compared to last yearís meet, and then dunked their competition on Saturday.

Forest Lake finished with 533 points in the Spring Lake Invitational. Second place Monticello was figuratively lapped by the Rangers with a final tally of 432 points. Whatís even more astounding is how far the Forest Lake swimmers have come since last fallís invitational.

In 2005, the Rangers came in sixth place with 261 points. They more than doubled that total last weekend.

ìI knew going into the meet that we were going to place higher (than last year), but I was thinking third, maybe second - hoping that wasnít too optimistic,î head swim coach Rochelle McKenzie admitted.

Building on their experience from Thursday, Forest Lake ended the weekend with three school records and one pool record that had stood at Spring Lake Park since 1987. On top of that, they had 10 season-best times, and several lifetime bests while winning five of the 12 events.

ìThis was a major accomplishment for us, continuing to show how hard these girls are working and how much they are improving,î McKenzie shared

CRETIN-DERHAM MEET

The Rangers led throughout most of Thursday night, only to see Cretin take first and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. This gave the Raiders just enough points in the final event to pull out a victory. Even though the meet didnít go as they had hoped, Forest Lake was able to go home with some quality results.

Amanda Nelson finished first in the 100-yard butterfly and set a new pool record in the process, and the 200-yard medley relay team of Mary Walters, Sarah Williamson, Nelson and Gaby Bunten inched even closer to the school record with a time that was just .16 off the current mark.

Bunten won the 200-yard free, Nelson took the 50-yard free and the divers did more than hold up their end as Janel Duffy, Erin Eagen and Scotti Sampair finished one, two, three for the sweep.

ìIt was heart-breaking to lose by one point,î McKenzie shared. ìAs soon as the score was announced you could see the look of disappointment on the girlsí faces. But that look almost instantly turned once they put it all into perspective and realized how far weíve come, and how far we can still go.î

On deck for the Rangers is a home meet against Roseville on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 6 p.m.

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