Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

The long break for the boys swimming and diving team came to an abrupt halt last week, as they had a meet with Roseville on Thursday, Jan. 4, and then a huge competition at the University of Minnesota on Saturday at the Maroon and Gold Invitational.

"Saturday was an awesome meet," head swim coach Barb Vailodash said of the Rangers fifth place finish in the Maroon Division. "Our team as a whole did the best showing in one meet as anyone could hope for."

Forest Lake started off with its 200 medley relay team of Mark Sandager, Elijah Miller, Tyler Sperry and John Goossens finishing in third place with a time of 1:45.55, which keeps them within striking distance of the school record.

Sandager also turned in a quality swim in the 200 freestyle, coming in third with a time of 1:49.30. Younger brother Peter Sandager dropped four seconds off his time, and Josh Stomberg set a personal best.

In a very tough 200 IM field, Miller finished in seventh place, and he also grabbed fourth in the 100 breaststroke.

Ricky Fleming is starting to crank it up in the 100 butterfly as he is dropping a second each time he takes to the water, so now he has a time of 1:13.30.

Matt Elden worked toward a personal best in the 100 fly with a time of 1:01.51, which puts him in sight of the 1:00.00 that he turned in at last year's section meet.

Sperry had a great heat in this event, coming in with a time of 59.64.

The 100 freestyle was good for the Rangers, with Stomberg setting a personal best at 57.26; John Goossens getting a 51.76, and Mark Sandager cruising in for a new school record of 49.74, down from the previous mark of 49.89.

The foursome of Sperry, Miller, Goossens and Mark Sandager surged over the last five yards in the 400 freestyle relay and touched out Moorhead for third place.

On Thursday, the team was in Roseville and won the meet, 95-86.

Vailodash was pleased to see many of the younger swimmers improve upon their personal best times, like Eric Moris in the 200 freestyle. Last season he had a time of 2:25.00, but on Thursday he went for 2:11.38.

DIVING RESULTS

The Maroon and Gold Invite had the Forest Lake divers going up against 32 divers from 13 schools.

According to head diving coach Deb Welch, scoring at meets like this one are generally lower than other competitions, and that was the case on Saturday.

The invite brought a large group of seasoned divers, with only three divers in 7th and 8th grade.

Matt Goossens, an 8th grader, did very well and landed in 19th place, which made him the leader of the pack for the "younger generation."

Freshman Connor Florand was strong as he earned an 11th place finish, and sophomore Jeff Isaacson served notice to the veteran group by placing eighth.

At the Roseville meet, it was basically the three varsity divers competing against themselves. Roseville has only one diver, and he lacks experience.

Isaacson, Florand and Matt Goossens swept first, second and third place in the varsity portion, with Jake Duffy winning junior varsity.

"We had the opportunity to put some of our new dives in the boys list at this meet and they did quite well with them," Welch said.

"The boys are working hard at learning new and upper level dives to keep up with the top competition out there. I like the attitude they have right now, I'm just hoping it continues to the end."

The next meet for the swimmers and divers is Thursday, Jan. 11, when they host Hastings at 6 p.m.

Top of Page