Swimming: River Rats continue to show improvement in final dual meet

By Margaret Baker 

Both the Huron River Rats and the Skyline Eagles closed out their regular dual meet swim/dive seasons on Friday night at Skyline. It was a tight meet, and the Eagles pulled out a win 96-90, but there was plenty to delight Huron fans, all watching remotely, in compliance with the AAPS rules for no-spectator contests during this very unusual season.

Continuing her terrific first year on the team, freshman Jasmine Xu took 2nd in the 200 Free (2:01.37) with junior Kathryn Hemmila in 4^th (2:09.09).  Xu also touched first in the 100 free (55.26), with junior Zannah Baker (55.78) close behind in second. Senior/captain Annaliese Streeter won the 200 IM easily (2:08.74), finishing ahead of teammate/ freshman Sawako Sakamoto, who was 2^nd (2:20.47), and Baker powered through to a victory in the 50 Free (25.07), just ahead of Skyline’s Claire Kozma (25.17).  Huron sophomore Catherine Li took 5^th place points (27.37) in that event.

On the board, once again senior/captain Annie Costello shined, scoring 276.20 points, ahead of teammate Julie Park (209.15) in 2^nd, and junior Maggie Thomas (149.60) in 5^th.  Junior Sitara Baxendale dove for 6^th (140.80), close behind Thomas.

Captain/senior Emily Tran scored another 100 Fly victory (1:00.66), with S. Sakamoto (1:04.80) in 3^rd; Hemmila (5:44.61) and junior Emma Kaipainen (5:50.16), were 3^rd and 4^th, respectively in the 500 distance event; Tran finished 2^nd in the 100 Back (1:02.39) with senior Clara Bowman (1:08.62) in 5^th; and in the 100 Breast, A. Streeter clocked in with another D1 cut time (1:07.87), with Kaipainen (1:12.69) in 2^nd and junior Ayaka Sakamoto (1:15.90) in 5^th.

Huron’s Free Relays were the cause of much rejoicing for Rat fans.  The “A” and “B” squads made a fine showing against Skyline in the 200 Free relay, with Xu, S. Sakamoto, Kaipainen, and Baker (1:44.37) touching second, just one second behind Skyline’s  Addison Kim, Shannen Lee, Erika Sauld and Lily Cleason ( 1:43.40), .and A. Sakamoto, Li, freshman Ece Uyulur, and Hemmila (1:50.09), finishing third.  Then in the 400 Free Relay, despite an early lead by Skyline, Huron’s squad of Tran, Xu, Baker and A. Streeter not only worked their way to victory in the race, but also pocketed their D1 state cut with a time of 3:43.61.

The SEC Red teams will meet for diving on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31 for swimming. It will be a “Finals” format, and tee-off on both days is at noon.  Both meets will be livestreamed.

Swimming: Eagles wrap up dual-meet season with win over Huron