Ponies sneak by Raiders in SEC swimming duel

Stillwater’s swimming team is, again, one of the state’s top teams. They are the heavy Suburban East Conference favorites and they are ranked No. 2 in the state.

The Ponies, though, got quite a scare last week when they faced off against Hastings.

Stillwater ended up winning, but only by 11 points.

“The girls outswam even our greatest expectations,” coach Katie McAlpin said. “A lot of our girls came out of the gate ready to go. Usually, you expect to ease in to the season. They came in to the season, guns blazing and ready to go.

“It was an amazing meet.”

Some Hastings swimmers even turned in personal best times, a real challenge in the first meet of the year.

Hastings won eight events, but Stillwater won the meet on depth.

Abbie Gjelhaug was the swimmer of the meet for Hastings. She won her two individual events, she swam on one first-place relay team and one second-place relay team.

“Her individual times were very close to her finals times last year,” McAlpin said.

Hastings pulled within seven points at 57-50 after the 100 freestyle.

The Ponies, though, took second, third and fourth in the 500 freestyle and from that point on took control of the meet.

The final score was 96-85.

Results from the meet went like this:

200 medley relay – team of Brina Kari, Kate Reilly, Leah Wallace and Allissa Smith, first, 1:52.83; team of Greta Utecht, Christina Gillard, Nicole Girgen and Megan Jahnke, fifth, 2:17.36

200 freestyle – Abbie Gjelhaug, first, 2:01.64; Morgan McCullough, fourth, 2:09.30; Breanna Kimmes, 2:11.56.

200 individual medley – Smith, second, 2:18.79; Mariah Wallace, fifth, 2:26.85; Alyssa Spitzack, 2:29.52.

50 freestyle – Reilly, first, 24.34; Leah Wallace, third, 26.58; Melanie Waibel, fifth, 27.71.

100 butterfly – Reilly, first, 59.60; Leah Wallace, third, 1:01.88; Gillard, 1:10.48.

100 freestyle – Kari, first, 54.22; Mariah Wallace, third, 58.77; Waibel, fifth, 1:01.92.

500 freestyle – Gjelhaug, first, 5:20.30; Kimmes, fifth, 5:49.47; Girgen, 6:06.97.

200 freestyle relay – team of Wallace, Kimmes, Wallace and Gjelhaug, second, 1:48.55; team of Sam Matsch, Gillard, McCullough and Alyssa Spitzack, 1:54.89; team of Girgen, Utecht, Melanie Devine and Jahnke, 2:08.79.

100 backstroke – Kari, first, 59.29; Smith, third, 1:03.64; Matsch, 1:11.28.

100 breaststroke – Spitzack, fourth, 1:14.83; Gillard, fifth, 1:21.10; Jahnke, 1:26.94.

400 freestyle relay – team of Kari, Smith, Gjelhaug and Reilly, first, 3:43.24; team of Kimmes, Matsch, McCullough and Waibel, second, 4:08.19; team of Devine, Liz Cole, Utecht and Donath Moore, third, 4:24.44.

Tags: raider swimming, sports, updates, hastings, hast, home, local, prep