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Girls Swim and Dive – small but mighty

The girls swim and dive team for Hastings has consistently been in the mix for conference championships. The Raiders have had strong showings at the section meet, often sending multiple swimmers to the state meet despite its relatively small number of participants compared to other programs in the conference and section. Hastings is a small but mighty team with very strong individuals who work well together. That is largely in part to having a head coach with a long tenure. Katie McAlpin has been at the helm of the girl’s swim team for quite some time, and now, she is in charge of the boys starting this year.

“Our girls did great this year,” said Coach McAlpin. “We have one of the longest running fall sport seasons. We started our season all the way back in mid-August and just wrapped up mid-November. Throughout our season, we were 8-2 in dual meets and took second in both invite style meets. These girls really stepped up and pushed through all the challenges that we faced this season. They really are an amazing group!”

McAlpin continued, “The end of the season meets were fantastic. We started with the JV Conference meet at the end of October. We had nine girls competing at this meet. Overall, 85 percent of our races were personal best times. This meet is not scored but we had all three relays 昀nish in the top six and a few heat winners. We celebrated two of our seniors, Shannon Olsen and Chloe Robinson, for their last meet. We thank them for their commitment to our team for the last four years. “

After the JV conference relays, the Raiders 昀nished the season as the Metro East Conference Champions. They followed that up by placing third in Section 3AAA.

At sections for diving, all four of Hastings divers made it to the 昀nal round of dives. All of them placed in the top 16, scoring team points. Ashtyn Stewart – 昀fth, Chloe Aarness – seventh, Greta Larson – 11th, Mari Hall – 13th. Three of the four had lifetime best 11 dive scores. The top four divers move on to state.

On the swimming side, to qualify for state at the section meet, swimmers from all school’s race in the preliminary round. The top 16 swim again in the 昀nals. Of those 16, the top eight quali昀ers have a chance to go to state. In the 昀nal section race, the top eight can qualify by beating a time set by the MSHSL. If all eight swimmers beat the time, they all advance to state. The section champion and runner up for each race automatically go to state even if no one in the race beats the state qualifying time.

Hastings quali昀ed seven for state. At the state meet, they had Ashtyn Stewart, Ava McNamara, Josey Larson, Clara Birken, Kira Aarness, Lila Salzman and Lauren Jenkins.

In the swimming 昀nals, McNamara 昀nished in the top eight for both the 100-breaststroke where she 昀nished sixth and the 100-butter昀y where she 昀nished third. Both of those 昀nishes earned her All-State honors. As a team, the Raiders 昀nished 20th in the state.

Coach McAlpin summed up the season, “As a coach, when you end a season, you re昀ect on how the season went. Not just from a stats point of view, but from a growth point of view. Each season as coaches we choose a few themes that we want to follow and ‘teach’ to our team. This year I chose Purpose, Perspective and Practice. Through Purpose the girls came up with a team purpose to work for together. It was super cool to see them come together, create it, and live it. We worked on Perspective; why we are here (at the pool), our team, ourselves, our failures and our successes. Our girls worked through a handful of ups and downs throughout the season, and I believe really embraced it. In practice we had extra focus on the little things making the big things work better. We saw this through their swimming and diving. Though out this season our team really came together and supported each other. It was so refreshing to see. I am so very proud of all of them!”

(Left to Right.) Front Row: Mari Hall,Izzy Green,Elianna Herrera-Carlson,KiraAarness,Sofia Kovalenko, Greta Larson, Lauren Jenkins. Second Row: Savannah Pechacek, Fiona Olsen, Chloe Robinson, Emma Dehmlow. Third Row: Coach Katie McAlpin, Kayden Butler, Shannon Olsen, Annika Ries, Emma Carter, Clara Birken, Josey Larson, Coach Briana Aarness. Back Row: Ashtyn Stewart, Ava McNamara, Stella Hilgers, Lila Salzman, Chloe Aarness.

Photo Courtesy of Maveric Photography. mavericphotography.zenfolio.com