Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Before the Forest Lake swimming and diving team plunges into its official season, they had the tradition of competing in the Suburban East Conference relays, which was held at Stillwater High School on Friday, Aug. 24.

“It’s a low pressure meet, and a great way to get the girls back in the water to show us what they are coming back with,” Rangers head coach Rochelle McKenzie noted. “It’s given us some good insight as to what we can look forward to this season.”

Forest Lake took seventh place out of nine teams, with 48 points, while Woodbury out-pointed Stillwater for first with 140 points to 136 for the Ponies.

“It is going to be a struggle, but I think we can finish close to where we did last year in both the section and the conference,” McKenzie said.

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, the performances did count when the team hosted Coon Rapids, and the girls responded by turning in an astounding 46 personal bests on the way to a 95-91 win.

“As I had hoped, our young swimmers are really coming out of their shells and stepping up, while our veterans are continuing to impress,” McKenzie observed.

“This was a great win for us. Coon Rapids is one of the teams in our section so it’s nice to see that we aren’t too far from where we were last year. Let’s hope this continues.”

The fifth-year head coach went on to highlight five swimmers who are already exceeding expectations: Courtney McGee (100 backstroke), Charity Riesgraf (200 IM), Maddy Emholz (100 butterfly), Kayla Forliti (100 breaststroke), Katie Royce (50 and 100 freestyle).

DIVING

In the diving portion of the SEC relays, head coach Deb Welch had her crew in Cottage Grove while the swimmers were in Stillwater.

“We placed great, just behind Stillwater for second, missing first by only 14 points,” Welch said.

Erin Eagen, Scotti Sampair and Allie Bey were the three divers for the meet and they were very happy with the outcome, Welch shared.

Against Coon Rapids, Welch said the divers came out strong and lead the entire way.

Working from the top to the very top, Bey took third place in the varsity, setting her personal best score with a 164.9.

“We may see her scores improve as the season goes (on) and she starts getting more confidence in her new dives,” Welch said.

Sampair came in second place, using most of her old-reliable dives and putting in one new one, Welch noted.

“She scored a lot of six to 7.5 on the old ones, looking nice as always.”

And finally, it was Eagen picking up first place with a score of 214.05, and she threw in a number of new dives with new positions that upped her degree of difficulty.

“She looked confident and smooth,” Welch stated. “Starting the season off with one, two, three is always encouraging and makes us excited about the rest of the season to come.”

COON RAPIDS RESULTS:

Firsts: Sarah Williamson-100 breaststroke; 200 freestyle relay (Darian Kaiser, Erin Liljedahl, Sammi Carr, Julianna Dahlager); Eagen in diving.

Seconds: Mary Walters-100 backstroke and 200 IM; Heidi Merrier-100 breaststroke; Dahlager-100 free; Liljedahl-100 butterfly; Sampair in diving; Kaiser-50 freestyle; 200 medley relay (Walters, Williamson, Britt Berg, Dahlager); 400 free relay (Ashley Schmitz, Waskey, Nicole Haglund, Sarah Morris).

Thirds: Kaiser-100 back; Carr-100 free; Ann Bleninger-butterfly; Bey in diving; Carr-50 freestyle; Merrier-200 IM; Dahlager-200 free; 200 medley relay (Kaiser, Merrier, Liljedahl, Carr); 200 free relay (Katie Royce, Natalie Emholz, Taylor Curtis, Williamson).

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