The Hastings Raiders girls swim and dive team split their meets recently against East Ridge and the co-op team of So. St. Paul, Minnehaha and Cristo Rey Loons. The Raiders lost to East Ridge 97-81 but defeated the Loons 97-80.
Against East Ridge, Hastings fought hard but could not keep up with the Raptors best. East Ridge had several events where they took at least first and second place. Hastings did have their bright spots. The 200 Medley Relay of Emma Dehmlow, Kira Aarness, Josey Larson and Sofia Kovalenko took second by less than three seconds, Dehmlow and Larson also broke into the top three in the 200 Individual Medley.
Greta Larson came close to breaking her 200-point goal in diving, scoring a 190.95 as Hastings top diver which was good for second place with Mari Hall taking fourth in diving. Kovalenko and Josie Larson placed second and third in the 100 butterfly. Lila Salzman and Izzy Green finished third and fourth in the 100 freestyle and eighth grader Liliana Burks took third in the 500 freestyle with Stella Hilgers just a few seconds behind her for fourth.
The meet against the Loons, was the exact opposite of the East Ridge meet, Hastings had control the entire time. The Loons are a new co-op so not only are the numbers very small, but the team also itself is very young. So young, that Hastings head coach Katie McAlpin planned a portion of her lineup with her junior varsity swimmers having many opportunities to swim in varsity races.
The Raiders took first, second and third in most of the individual events throughout the evening finishing with a 97-80 win over the loons.
The Raiders have their True Team meet this week Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12 at Two Rivers. Friday the meet starts at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 11:30 a.m.