Swimming: River Rats impressive across the board – and on the board

Special to WLAA
October 21, 2020, 4 years ago

By Margaret Baker

The Huron River Rat Girls’ Swim/Dive team hosted a small but congenial tri-meet Tuesday night with Ypsilanti and Monroe in attendance. Every meet held these days feels like a major “win” for all, and Tuesday was no exception. There were some excellent performances by the Rats, and some surprises, as many were swimming new or “off” events.

Huron’s juniors had a fine showing with Zannah Baker taking the 200 free (2:07.33) and the 500 Free (5:46.44); Kathryn Hemmila winning the 200 IM (2:27.53) and the 100 Back (1:10.19), and Cali Streeter touching first in the 100 Fly (1:11.05) then 2nd in the 100 Breast (1:20.26), one second behind Monroe’s Kailee Turner (1:19.22).

Junior Emma Kaipainen also garnered some accolades, winning the 100 Free (59.41), and narrowly missing a win in the 50 Free (27.18) behind Monroe’s Meredith Soule (27.05).

Huron newcomers also shined, with freshman Shayla Pawlicki finishing 2^nd in both the 200 Free (2:21.30) and the 100 Fly (1:19.03); sophomore Lucy Schneidewind taking 2^nd in the 100 Free (1:08.95); freshman Ece Uyulur touching 3^rd in the 200 IM (2:43.95) and 4^th in the 100 Fly (1:24.34); and freshman Claire Leone (2:40.98) coming in 4^th in the 200 IM.

Huron’s three “A” relays were all victorious: in the 200 Medley senior Clara Bowman, junior Ayaka Sakamoto, Uyulur and Hemmila (2:09.29); in the 200 Free, Bowman, Kaipainen, Uyulur and junior Lydia Hargett (1:54.38); and in the 400 Free, Baker, Hemmila, senior Ella Szmansky, and Hargett (4:15.25).

The big story on the night was senior/captain/diver Annie Costello breaking her own team record (set last year) on the board, scoring a towering 302.10 points. Junior Maggie Thomas (183.01) earned her first 2^nd place, followed by senior Julie Park (176.92) and junior Sitara Baxendale, who continues to improve and scored 140.02 points.

The Rats welcome Bedford on Thursday for their last dual conference meet of the season, and then go to Skyline Friday for a make-up of last week’s cancelled meet.

[Huron swimming]