Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

One year after the Forest Lake swimming and diving team won the Section 7AA meet and sent a handful of athletes to state, the Rangers slipped down to fifth last weekend and saw only Erin Eagen qualify for the trip to the University of Minnesota, as the result of her first place finish in diving.

Centennial completed a tremendous season with 369 points, and replaced Forest Lake as the top team in the section, while Cambridge-Isanti took second with 343 points. Champlin Park was third with 316 points, and Blaine’s total of 259 points put them slightly ahead of the Rangers’ 249.

Head diving coach Deb Welch and head swimming coach Rochelle McKenzie were both expecting a few more highlights than what they witnessed at the preliminaries on Nov. 8 and at Saturday’s finals, but Eagen’s performance and a list of personal bests helped end the year on a positive note.

In the diving competition, Welch was hoping to see Scotti Sampair make it to the top 16, but the junior would close her season by cheering on teammates Allie Bey and Eagen.

Welch was thrilled to have Eagen at the top of the medal stand, and Eagen did it with consistency, style and a late surge that confirmed her status as one of Minnesota’s best.

The junior was in fourth place with only three rounds to go, but that is exactly where she separated herself from the others. Welch admitted she and Eagen were already smiling because Eagen owns those last three dives.

“It’s not unusual to see people trying to hide their worst dives in the last three rounds because they want to make it that far,” Welch said. “With Erin, it’s nice to have a solid, full-list of 11 dives and more to pull from.”

Also coming through was the promising Bey, as the eighth grader was the youngest diver among the Sweet 16.

“She definitely showed that age has nothing to do with being able to work the board,” Welch said.

Saturday afternoon brought the swimming final, but with less Rangers than coach McKenzie had anticipated.

“Too many nerves on Thursday put several girls out of the running, so that was a little frustrating,” McKenzie shared. “However, those who were focussed and ready to swim pulled out some nice performances.”

SECTION 7AA

4th place
100 backstroke — Mary Walters at 1:04.35.

5th place
200 freestyle — Julianna Dahlager, with a personal best (PB) of 2:05.74.
100 butterfly — Erin Liljedahl at 1:06.74.
100 breaststroke — Sarah Williamson at 1:12.47.
200 free relay — Liljedahl, Sammi Carr, Dahlager and Britt Berg.

6th place
400 free relay — Carr, Walters, Darian Kaiser and Dahlager
200 medley relay — Walters, Williamson, Liljedahl and Kaiser at 1:59.32.
200 IM — Walters at 2:22.78.
100 backstroke — Kaiser at 1:06.96.

8th place
100 backstroke — Courtney McGee at 1:07.95.

9th place
100 breaststroke — Heidi Merrier, with a PB of 1:16.00.
500 freestyle — Berg, with a PB of 5:51.28.

10th place
50 freestyle — Kaiser at 26.70.

OTHER NOTABLE TIMES AND FINISHES:

12th — Dahlager, 100 freestyle; 18th — Sarah Morris, 200 freestyle, with a personal best of 2:16.56; 22nd — Morris, 500 freestyle, with a personal best 6:16.17; 17th — Nicole Haglund, 200 freestyle, with a personal best of 2:16.20; 13th — Laura Oberg-Hauser, 200 free, with a PB of 2:13.43; 14th — Charity Riesgraf, 100 butterfly, with a PB of 1:11.45; 13th — Berg, 200 IM, with a PB of 2:27.80; 13th — Carr, 50 free; 16th — Maddy Emholz, 100 butterfly; 21st — Brianna Luhman, 100 butterfly, with a personal best of 1:14.49; 12th — Anya Waskey, 500 free, with a PB of 5:57.65; 20th — Anna Brennhofer, 100 breaststroke, with a PB of 1:20.08.

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