By Bruce Karnick

With all that could go wrong in 2020, the Girls Swim and Dive team has kept their season on track with a win over Mahtomedi. After the meet, Head Coach Katie McAlpin said “This was our toughest competition of the season so far. Mahtomedi is a great team. They are very well coached, and they pushed us. The girls had a lot of great races.” After winning 10 of the 12 events, the Raiders defeated the Zephyrs 103 to 83.

Swimmers of the meet were; Kendal Jenkins and Izzy Green.

Kendal had three season best times. Kendal won both the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Backstroke.

Izzy had one season best time and two lifetime best times. Izzy placed fourth in the 200 and 500 Freestyles.

Diver of the meet was Grace Gerlach. Grace had a season best score and just two points away from a lifetime best score.

Coach McAlpin is one that always looks on the bright side, so it is tough to get her to talk about the difficulties she has coaching. One difficult aspect for the Raiders swim team is the COVID limitations around masks. “Some of the hardest part is wearing masks on the pool deck. The girls get out of the pool and they have to put their mask on right away, so masks get wet. It’s already hard to breathe with all the moisture in the air, the girls are trying to catch their breath and now we have to add an extra barrier for getting maximum oxygen.” McAlpin and her staff made tie-dye masks for everyone on the team plus 15 or so extras. “I keep the extra masks with me to swap out ones that get too wet.” McAlpin added. When she gets one that has been worn, she isolates it until she can get it in the wash and properly sanitize it.

Another issue has been the limit on personnel. “We are allowed to have 25 swimmers, three coaches and one student manager with us. We have 27 swimmers, three coaches and two student managers.” That means three students get left out of each meet. “We have been lucky so far this year with that.” She said regarding not having to pick three students to leave out. “Each meet someone has had a nagging injury or a marching band event or something else, so the girls have all self-selected who was out. Not this week. We have to pick two swimmers and a manager to not be involved in the meet at all.” McAlpin explained. “They cannot even be in the stands.”

Section Meet In her phone interview Monday morning, Coach Katie brought up that there is a possibility that there could be a section meet. “We might have a section tournament.” She said excitedly. “I’ve been checking my emails nonstop this morn… OH I GOT AN EMAIL FROM TRENT!” (Athletic Director Trent Hanson) there is a brief pause as she opens the email and begins to read. “OH! Here we go! A Multi-site section meet held the week of October 19th over two days with diving being held at a separate time… That is freaking awesome!” She could not read any more and hold back her excitement. “The girls are gonna be SO happy!” For the details of the MSHSL changes, see page 13.

The Raiders have two home meets this week. First up is Simley in an exhibition meet and Thursday will be a conference meet against Henry Sibley. Both meets will start at 6:00 and are still closed to the public. Hastings Community Television will be broadcasting both meets on their Facebook page via Facebook Live.

Parents Night The Girls will be celebrating Parents night on September 24th. Since they cannot have any spectators, they have decided to do a drive by parade at the Middle School. Swim and Dive has been the only sport this fall that has not been able to have ANY fans in the stands. Parents of student athletes know how important it is to support a child in their activities and how much they deserve to have fans present. Parents of the swimmers are being asked to drive in the right lane by the front of the Middle School at 11th and Pine at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The girls will be there to give out their thank you gifts to their parents.

Here is the extra piece. FANS! PLEASE COME OUT TOO! You may not be able see the meet in person, but the left lane in front of the school is yours to drive by, honk, cheer and wave! Drive safe and show your Raider Pride!