Last Thursday, the Becker Bulldog swimming and diving team took on the Chisago Lakes Wildcats in the opening Mississippi8 Conference meet of the season and came away with a convincing, 104-80, victory.

“The girls are doing a great job reading the competition and doing what they need to do to out touch them at the finish of the race,” Coach Tina Tamm said. “Being in the Mississippi 8 has given us some really good competition and some very fun meets to be at.”

Tamm pointed out several top performers from the meet, including Delaney Varney, who dropped four seconds off her 200 free time and took first place in the event. Grace Wynia also dropped her time in a big way, shaving off five seconds from her 200 Individual Medley (IM) time and placed third. Joey Cox qualified for Sections in the 200 IM while also dropping four seconds off her time. 

Finally, Meghan Swanson took the first place finish in the 500 free with a time drop of seven seconds for the Bulldogs.

“We hope to continue to keep improving no matter who we compete against,” Tamm said.

Falcons

Tuesday, Becker ran into perennial powerhouse Foley and came away a bit short, dropping the dual meet by a score of 81-103.

“It’s always a tough meet against Foley,” Tamm said. “They have really good swimmers and they are tough to beat.”

Noting the first place finishers for the night, Tamm listed Laila Cook (winning both the 200 IM and 100 Freestyle) and Sarah Woelfel (first in diving) as top Bulldog performers.

“We stayed pretty close to them in the first half of the meet but they have a very strong second half of the meet,” Tamm added.

Tamm went on to credit her divers, along with their diving guru coach, Kayla Kalinowski, as having a stellar night overall.

“The divers – Sarah Woelfel, Lauren Woelfel and Bella Kuschel – swept the diving event going 1,2,3 respectively,” Tamm said.

The Bulldogs were slated to host the Big Lake Hornets on Thursday night for Parent’s Night. Complete details can be found in next week’s Patriot.