The Bulldog Swimming and Diving team put together a strong team performance at the Section 5A swim meet hosted in Becker last week, with several personal records and one team record set during the multi-day competition.

The meet began last Thursday, with the swimming preliminaries, and Becker sent a total of nine entries on to the Section finals after a strong performance. 

“The girls had a really good meet Thursday night, as personal best times were happening in every event,” Coach Tina Tamm said.  “We started the night with a new varsity 200 Medley Relay record, as breaking the eight year record was Laila Cook, Grace Wynia, Delaney Varney and Avary Maunu.”

Tamm said the school record was something the girls had been chasing all season, and their hard work finally paid off.”

“The girls came to me at the beginning of the season and told me they wanted to break that record this year,” Tamm said.  “They even went so far as to figure out what each of their split times had to be for their portion of the race to get the record. They worked hard all season to not only beat the record but make the new record four seconds faster. They had a goal set and did what they needed to do to achieve it.”

Tamm also noted many individual time drops for the preliminary round, as over 20 event participants scored personal best times, including: 200 free Meghan Swanson, Brianna Dahle and Varney; 200 IM: Wynia, Joey Cox, Lucy Pink; 50 Free: Sophie Studer, Maunu, Kadence Cox, Tia Schaap; 100 Butterfly: Studer, Dahle, Varney; 100 free: Kadence Cox , Schaap, Maunu; 500 free: Nash Super, Nev Baune; 100 backstroke: Arleigh Pudlick, Cook, 100 breaststroke: Wynia, Joey Cox, Pink.

“As you see, there were a lot of personal best times swam by the girls – it was a great night,” Tamm said.

Diving Prelims and Semis

On Friday, Becker hosted the diving prelims and semifinals, with four Bulldogs competing in the event, including Sarah Woelfel, Lauren Woelfel, Bella Kuschel and Sofia Bonsante. 

“Sarah, Lauren and Sofia survived both cuts on Thursday to make it to the finals on Saturday,” Tamm said. “We have a lot of very good divers in our Section so to have three of the four make it through to finals is good.”

Tamm noted that the Section 5A Diving competition was incredible strong overall, which made advancing to the state meet a very difficult hurdle to clear.

“Our girls had some really good dives but the competition this year was a little better,” Tamm said.  “Sarah missed her final trip to the State meet by just two points giving her a fifth place finish in the Section.”

Finals

Saturday was the swimming and diving finals, again hosted at the Becker Aquatic Center.  

“The final day of the meet showed lots of record-breaking performances from the teams and more improved times for our Becker swimmers,” Tamm said. “Of the 12 events in the meet, seven of them now have new pool records. Our facility is great for big events and allows for some great races.”

For the Bulldogs, Cook secured a spot in the finals and dropped four seconds off her best 200 IM time, while the 200 Free Relay (Kadence Cox, Avary Maunu, Meghan Swanson and Tia Schaap) dropped one additional second off their relay time to place eighth.

The 400 Free Relay (Grace Wynia, Delaney Varney, Tia Schaap, Laila Cook) dropped six seconds of their relay time and placed sixth, while the 200 Med Relay (Laila Cook, Grace Wynia, Delaney Varney, Avary Maunu) placed 6th in the Section.

Varney placed third in the 100 butterfly, just missing her trip to the State meet.  

“She swam a great meet and was very close to that second place finish,” Tamm said. “Overall, it was a great end to the season.  Of course I would like to have had a trip to the U of MN this week, but I know that the girls swam and dove their best and that’s all I want – for them to do their best, whatever the results.”