The Mound Westonka/Holy Family girls swim and dive team was one of 12 competing in the Class A True Team meet October 22 at the University of Minnesota after qualifying in the Section 3A True Team meet the week prior.  MWHF finished the meet in fifth place behind Visitation, MSHSL Class A State Champions since 2013, Orono, Delano and Monticello.     

True Team is a uniquely scored event. Rather than points awarded only to the top three relay teams and top five individual event competitors, in True Team scoring, all competitors earn points, with first place worth as many points as the number of entries in the event (if 40 competitors, the winner earns 40 points, second place earns 39 points, etc.), and relay scores are doubled. Each team is allowed four entries per event and each competitor is allowed two individual events and two relays. Performing well in this meet requires team depth in all events.

The team earned a pair of first-place finishes in the individual events. Junior Catherine Dueck has proven herself to be a force in any race and that held true last weekend. Her first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley (2:09.25, 48 points) demonstrated her versatility in all four strokes. Junior Abigail Ries finished 19th, ninth-grader Kayla Quandt was 34th and eighth-grader Challa Patterson finished 39th. The 100-yard backstroke was one for the record book with Breck’s Crosby Piper setting a new True Team meet record (57.24). Dueck finished just behind Piper (59.85, 47 points) with senior Kristin Collins, sophomore Onna Sullivan and ninth-grader Peyton Schmidt finishing 21st, 24th and 39th, respectively. 

Senior captain Kate Johnston won the team’s second individual event with the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.00, 48 points). Though also a solid free style sprinter, Johnston’s breast stroke is likely to have her on the podium at the MSHSL tournament next month. Senior captain Izzy Sullivan, ninth-grader Amelia Olson and seventh-grader Ashley Johnson finished 23rd, 32nd, 36th, respectively.

Sophomore Annemarie Johnson had a team-high eighth-place finish (2:03.72, 41 points) in the 200-yard freestyle and ninth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle. Sophomore Grace Warden finished 14th in the 200-yard freestyle, senior captain Courtney French was 25th and sophomore Peyton Schmidt finished in 41st place. Olson, French and Patterson finished 25th, 29th and 33rd, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle. 

The 100-yard butterfly was a tight race, with less than one second separating first and fifth place. Sophomore Camille Ness was MWHF’s event leader, finishing in 15th place (1:04.82, 34 points) with Ries, Quandt and Sullivan finishing 27th, 39th and 41st, respectively.    

Senior freestyle sprinter Jaylyn Storm was among top finishers in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. Storm’s 24.57 was 00:00.52 off of the event winner, earning her a third-place finish (46 points). Teammates Ness, Johnston and Collins finished ninth, 11th and 33rd, respectively. Storm took fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (54.98, 45 points) with Warden in 12 place, O. Sullivan in 33rd and Annemarie Johnson finishing 43rd.

MWHF’s Dueck, Johnston, Ness and Storm won the 200-yard medley relay (1:49.57, 96 points) with a more than three second lead over second place Visitation. Collins, I. Sullivan, Ries and A. Johnson finished 19th; Schmidt, Olson, Quandt and Ashley Johnson finished 32nd; and eighth-grader Verena Habicht, senior Skyler Kelm, ninth-grader Hayden Nichols and ninth-grader Isabel Starr finished 45th. 

Johnston, Ness, Warden and Storm finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:41.86, 90 points); with O. Sullivan, I. Sullivan, Starr and French in 17th; Patterson, Quandt, Nichols and ninth-grader Bella Kirkpatrick finishing 36th; and Kelm, eighth-grader Sadie Cline, Habicht and sophomore Morgan Murch finishing 46th.

MWHF’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Dueck, Warden, O. Sullivan and Annemarie Johnson finished in sixth place (3:48.06); with Ries, French, Patterson and Collins in 15th place; Schmidt, Olson, Starr and Ashley Johnson in 31st; and Nichols, eighth-grader Tiffany Johnson, Cline and Kelm finishing 43rd. 

The meet included 11 rounds of 1-meter diving. MWHF eighth-grader Baily Monette set a new team record and finished in an impressive third place (diving score of 348.20, 46 points). Ninth-grader Erica Johnson finished 13th, eighth-grader Jillian Schmitz finished 26th and ninth-grader Britta Elliot finished 34th.

MWHF is currently ranked fourth in MSHSL Class A with the section and state tournament meets approaching in November. The team’s next meet is 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, at The Blake School.