By Bruce Karnick

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Thursday the 18th, the North St. Paul (NSP) Polars came to town. The Raiders looked to continue their winning streak while celebrating their seniors. Seniors Hudson Doty, Joe Everson, Ryan Lester, Jake McNamara and Liam Shelhamer were each given gifts and thanked for their time with the team.

The Polars swim team has seen its membership declining recently, but their swimmers are quite scrappy and do not give up easy. The Polars took the first relay from the Raiders by half of a second and jumped out to an 8-6 lead. The next varsity race, the 200 freestyle, NSP took first again. Hastings went 2-3-4, so the points did go the way of Hastings tying the meet at 15.

Hastings won the 200 Individual Medley with strong performances from Joe Everson, Garrett Watterson and Obbe Haveman, giving them the first lead of the meet with a score of 28-18. NSP would narrow the gap slightly winning the 50 freestyle, but their lack of divers gave Hastings a free 10 points and a bigger lead. After diving, the Raiders led 45-27.

Hastings went 1-2-3 in the 100 butterfly thanks to Adam Duer, John Destross and Tristan Herbst. Hastings extended the lead 58-30.

North won the 100 freestyle and the 500 freestyle but those victories only cut into the Raiders lead by four points. Hastings was up 72-48.

Hastings’ 200 Freestyle relay of Philip Jensen, Ryan Lester, Hudson Doty and Joe Everson continued their dominance of the season and they nabbed the win for the Raiders. Then in the 100 backstroke, Duer, Isaac Schalk and Haveman gave the Raiders another 1-2-3 win extending the lead.

At this point, the Raiders had amassed enough points to secure the victory and opted to go exhibition. Meaning, the times would still count for the swimmers, but the Raiders would collect no more points no matter how they finished.

The final of the meet was 95-80.

The Raiders travel to South St. Paul on Thursday the 25th and finish the season at Henry Sibley on March 4th. It is unknown at this time if the meet at South St. Paul will be streamed online, but the Henry Sibley meet will be. The plan is currently that Henry Sibley will do the broadcast thanks to parent volunteer John Villa. That stream can be found on YouTube by searching Henry Sibley Swim and Dive. We may even be lucky enough to get a surprise play by play call from Mrs. Julie Urban!