The Bluejay swimmers were out-gunned in dual meets with Marshfield and D.C. Everest last week, but didn’t let that hold them back.
“Despite the losses, our girls are keeping their heads high,” MHS coach Bethany Preboske said. “On Tuesday, the girls cut a combined 53 seconds off of all their events, which means they are working hard at practice and continuing to hit the fundamentals hard. This is an awesome accomplishment.
“Some teams compare their success rate with wins and losses. We do not do that because every second off in the pool is a successful race and goal each of the girls have. It doesn’t matter if they win or lose, they are out to better themselves as athletes.”
Against Marshfield, Courtney Kolehouse took a win in the 50 free with a :27.40, as did the 200 free team (Taylor LaBorde, Megan Koelsch, Kassie Pyka, Robin Opsahl) in 2:07.07.
Runners-up included: Emma Sowieja (200 free, 2:30.15); Opsahl (100 fly, 1:26.37); the 200 medley (Mackenzie Baacke, Kolehouse, Elise Ordemann, Jourdyn Mootz, 2:10.38); and the 400 free (Ordemann, Sowieja, Koelsch, Mootz, 4:30.28).
Thirds came from: LaBorde (200 IM, 3:01.75); Ordemann (100 free, 1:05.27); Tori Engel (500 free, 6:54.78); Baacke (100 back, 1:18.66); and Kolehouse (100 brea, 1:20.92).
Big time cuts came from: LaBorde (12 s, 500 fr/ 5 s, 200 IM); Engel (5 s, 200 fr/ 4 s, 500 free); Sowieja (3 s, 200 fr); Madi Dillinger (5 s, 50 fr); Megan Johnson (3 s, 100 ba); Baacke (3 s, 100 ba); Jennica Jahnke (2 s, 100 br).
The Jays weren’t able to place higher than third at Everest on Thursday.
Kolehouse (50 fr, :27.90); the 20 medley (Koelsch, Koleshoue, Oredemann, Mootz, 2:04.82); the 200 free (Mootz, Ordemann, Sowieja, Kolehouse, 1:56.68); and the 400 free (Koelsch, Mootz, Ordemann, Sowieja, 4:27.71) did it.
“We had many close races where we were edged out of 2nd or 3rd place by a second or two,” Preboske said. “We must learn to take that competition and up our game. Swimming is such a mental sport and some of our girls have to learn how to dig deep to find their strongest competitive edge while blocking out what they know of from statistics.”