We had over 60 percent of our swimmers earn their personal best times and for a midseason meet, that is fantastic! Our girls fought hard all the way to the end.”

Head Coach Katie McAlpin

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Their next meet is Sept. 26 at 6:00 p.m. against South St. Paul. Then Oct. 3 at 6:00 p.m. for senior night against Simley.

With each passing year, it is becoming more difficult to decide who Hastings sports fans should worry about more, St. Thomas Academy or Mahtomedi. The Cadets being a private school are really easy to dislike, but since they are an all-boys school, and this is girls swimming, that choice is made for us by default. Collectively, the choice here is Mahtomedi. The Raider swim and dive team took another trip to John Glenn Middle School, this time to take on the host Zephyrs in Metro East Conference competition. Hastings ultimately lost 88-98.
Mahtomedi took the early 10-4 lead in the 200 Medley Relay with their relays placing first and third. The Raiders Emma Dehmlow, Maddy Ritter, Josey Larson and Lila Salzman took second by a margin of less than three seconds from the first-place time.
The Zephyrs extended their lead in the 200 freestyle despite Sofia Kovalenko’s second place time of 2:01.80 and Izzy Green’s third place time 2:06.91. Mahtomedi led 19-11.
Hastings closed the gap in the third event , the 200 yard individual medley. Kira Arness took first with a time of 2:18.28. Maddy Ritter placed fourth with 2:36.35 and Mari Hall placed fifth with 2:40.09. The score 26-20 in favor of Mahtomedi.
The close score did not last long with the 50 freestyle. Mahtomedi took first, second and fourth and Salzman placed third with a time of 26.68 and Emma Leonard fifth with 29.63. The Zephyrs increased the lead 38-24.
Diving is still one of Hastings strongest individual events and Chloe Aarness took the top spot with a score of 237.2. Hall placed third with 194.00 and Greta Larson took fourth with 192.35. The lead was cut down, but Hastings still trailed 43-35.
The 100 butterfly brought Hastings closer thanks to Josey Larson taking first with a time of 1:01.09 and Dehmlow’s third place time of 1:05.20, narrowing the gap to 50-44.
Hastings then came within two points of tying the meet during the 100 freestyle. Kira Aarness took first place with a time of 55.71, Kovalenko took second with a time of 56.80 to bring the score to 56-54.
From that point forward, Mahtomedi kept creeping away slowly and Hastings would creep right back to be within four points until the final race, the 400 freestyle relay. With the meet score at 88-84, Hastings needed to take first for eight points and have a second team in the top three, but they could not pull it off. Mahtomedi took first and third for 10 points and Hastings only picked up four points from second place. The Zephyrs edged out the top relay by just .61 of a second. The final score was Mahtomedi 98, Hastings 88.
“This was our fourth Metro East Conference meet and we came up a little short in the end,” said Head Coach Katie McAlpin. “We are looking at a solid second place finish in the conference with three more conference meets to go. We had over 60 percent of our swimmers earn their personal best times and for a midseason meet, that is fantastic! Our girls fought hard all the way to the end.”
The coaches’ swimmers of the meet were Sofia Kovalenko and Elayna Latch.
“Sofia had season best time in both of her individual events, along with second place finishes in both. Elayna had three best times. She dropped .5 of a second in the 50 free and 20 seconds off of her 100 backstroke,” said McAlpin.
The diver of the meet was Greta Larson.
“Greta has great perseverance, she never gives up, even when it gets really frustrating and difficult. She remains positive and did exactly what her team needed her to do. She is getting so close and closer to her goal of breaking a score of 200,” said McAlpin.
The Raiders have had five meets this season, three of which have been at John Glenn Middle School for three different hosts. They have been there the most, an observation that McAlpin had a laugh at which she followed up with, “it will be good to finally be home.”
Their next meet is Sept. 26 at 6:00 p.m. against South St. Paul. Then Oct. 3 at 6:00 p.m. for senior night against Simley.