Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

The boys swim team has bolted out of the new year in a way that suggests it is already prepared for bigger competitions. A tremendous showing at the Maroon & Gold Invitational on Jan. 6 led the Rangers into a meet with Hastings early last week, and from there they faced the entire section last Saturday at True Team Sections.

The week was a success.

Forest Lake is now the Section 7AA True Team Champion for the fourth consecutive season, and they did it while beating second place Blaine by 122 points.

"[The] main focus for sections was to have quality swims without backing down on training through the week," head swim coach Barb Vailodash shared, with her focus on cranking out even faster times at the True Team State meet this weekend.

With first place finishes in the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, senior Mark Sandager was key for the Rangers. Factoring into the grand total with equal flair was junior Elijah Miller, who was tops in both the 200 IM as well as the 100 breaststroke.

As usual, when there are good results to be found, senior Tyler Sperry is around, and he posted a personal best in 200 IM and was first in the 100 butterfly. Also in the mix was junior John Goossens, who took second in the 50 freestyle and third in the 100 free with times that are competitive against the top competitors in the state.

Senior John Gavanda also had personal bests in both the 50 and 100 free.

More positives came from sophomore Mike Bahr, who dropped his time in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, and fellow sophomore Clint Krummi, who Vailodash called "amazing" as he finished the 500 freestyle with a stellar 5:24.20, which cut nine seconds from his time at Tuesday's meet against Hastings.

Courtesy of the big win, it's no surprise Vailodash thought the meet was "fun to watch," she noted. "This Saturday's state meet is where the team will have the opportunity to compete against great swimmers and be ready and rested to show speed."

Forest Lake had little trouble with Hastings on Jan. 9, where the Rangers won, 100-76.

The line-up of Sandager, Miller, Sperry and Goossens ended the 200 medley relay in the familiar first place position.

Junior Frank O'Neil dropped his time in both the 200 and 500 freestyle, and Krummi began his improbable week in the 500 free by knocking off 11 seconds from his time to take second place.

Making a late charge in the 200 IM was Sperry, who pulled in for second place with a time of 109.77

DIVING

While the swimmers poured it on in actual competition, the diving team was faced with a little bit of everything.

Since the Hastings team lacks any divers, the Rangers were essentially diving against themselves. On the flip side, when it came to the True Team Sections, head diving coach Deb Welch enjoyed watching her entire group turn in personal best, 11 dive scores.

"Jake Duffy came into this meet never having done an 11 dive meet before, so this was kind of a test for him to see if he could handle it," Welch said. "Jake placed 14th in the meet and showed the team that we can count on him going to varsity sections at the end of the season instead of (the) jv conference meet."

There were questions if Matt Goossens could even dive after he injured his arm on Friday, but the 8th grader came through with a 12th place finish.

Despite a missed dive, freshman Connor Florand placed sixth, and sophomore Jeff Isaacson placed third overall, with Welch feeling like he could move up with more practice in the coming weeks.

In the Hastings meet, Florand put together a fantastic series of dives to reach his personal best with a score of 192.2, which put him in first place. Isaacson ended the night in second place with 179.6 points, and Matt Goossens 140.15 total putting him in third.

"The next few meets won't be so easy," Welch said. "We know that the next teams all have pretty good divers, but we are anxious to see how we fare with them. We just need to stay focus and keep pushing to the end, which I think we are now motivated to do."

Top of Page