The Mound Westonka/Holy Family (MWHF) girls swim and dive team visited the perennial powerhouse team at Hutchinson on Sept. 21 and came away with a hard-fought win.   

The win can largely be attributed to both strength of the relay line-ups and solid execution by the varsity divers. Each first-place relay finish earns eight points, second place earns four points, and third place earns two points. Individual event winners earn six points, with second through fifth earning 4, 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively.

Coach Ben Hanson’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of junior captain Annemarie Johnson, junior Grace Warden, ninth grader Laney Hendrickson and senior captain Catherine Dueck took the top spot (1:44.96) ahead of teammates senior captain Abigail Ries, sophomore Amelia Olson, sophomore Hayden Nichols and ninth grader Jaylen Juras in third. The team of sophomore Kayla Quandt, Warden, junior captain Onna Sullivan and Dueck won the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:50.99) ahead of second-place finishers sophomore Izzy Star, junior Peyton Schmidt, ninth grader Chella Patterson and ninth grader Charlotte Lake. Sullivan, Johnson, Juras and Hendrickson finished second in the 200-yard medley relay with Schmidt, Olson, Ries and Star finishing fourth.

Johnson won the 200-yard freestyle handily (2:05.21) with a more than 3 second advantage over Hutchinson’s second-place finisher.  Sullivan and Olson finished fourth and fifth, respectively.  After two consecutive weeks setting new pool records in the 200-yard individual medley, Dueck took a break from the race this week with a new individual event line-up. Dueck won the 50-yard freestyle (25.03) with Warden in second and Juras in fourth. 

Dueck finished the 100-yard breaststroke 00:00.52 behind Hutchinson’s Madilyn Gehrke. The two last met in the final heat of the 2022 MSHSL State Tournament, where Dueck took second place ahead of Gehrke’s third-place finish. It’s a match-up we’re likely to see again at the 2023 state meet in November. Olson and Ries finished the 100-yard breaststroke in fourth and fifth places, respectively.

Hendrickson took second in the 220-yard individual medley (2:29.86) with Patterson finishing fourth and Quandt fifth. Sullivan finished second in the 100-yard backstroke (1:07.02) ahead of Patterson in fifth and Schmidt in sixth place. Warden (57.79), Hendrickson and Schmidt finished second, third and fifth, respectively in the 100-yard freestyle. MWHF swept the 100-yard butterfly with Juras (1:03.50), Ries and Nichols taking the top three spots.

MWHF sophomore Erica Johnson has a perfect dual meet record, having taken the top spot in each of the four meets this season. Johnson’s brings execution and difficulty, as she continues to perfect her roster of dives, including a front 1 ½ somersault with 1 twist (2.2 difficulty score). “I’m really happy with how the season is going and how supportive my teammates and I are of each other,” said Johnson. Freshman diver Jillian Schmitz finished in third place, and eighth grader Ashlynn Koehler finished in sixth.   

Next meet is Mound Westonka/Holy Family at home vs. Watertown-Mayer on Thursday, Sept. 28.