We have a small but mighty team.”

Coach McAlpin

The Raiders will have the JV Conference Relay on Oct. 27 at South St. Paul at 6:00 p.m. and the team will host an 11-dive invite Saturday, Oct. 28 starting at 11:00 a.m. at Hastings Middle School.

The Raiders girls swim and dive team finished their regular season with a 93-82 victory over Simley for their final Metro East Conference dual meet on Oct. 12. Then they were the hosts of the True Team section meet which is basically an exhibition meet to give everyone an idea of where they are sitting for the upcoming section meet Nov. 8-10 at Two Rivers High School in Mendota Heights.

Against Simley, the victory put the Raiders in third place for the conference. Swimmers of the meet were Payton Coombs and Kira Aarness. Coombs is both a swimmer and diver and she cut seven seconds in her 100 breaststroke and placed third in JV Diving. Aarness had three season best times trimming half a second in her relay spot, the 50 backstroke, another half of a second in her 100 freestyle and two full seconds in the 100 backstroke. The diver of the meet was senior captain Ashtyn Stewart.

“Ashtyn’s dedication and determination to improve everyday show cases in the meets. She excels at wanting to do better and learn more. Today's meet was a reflection of those efforts,” said diving coach Briana Aarness.

Additionally, three Raiders had noticeable improvements at the meet; Clara Birken’s 50 freestyle time finally broke the 26 second barrier, Emma Leonard trimmed four seconds off her 200 freestyle and Ellie Cook dropped three seconds in the 100 breaststroke.

For true team diving, the team pulled out the win.

“All four of our divers placed in the top eight. Second went to Chloe Aarness, fourth to Ashtyn Stewart, sixth to Greta Larson, and seventh to Mari Hall,” explained Head Coach Katie McAlpin. “Our exhibition divers did well. Carlie Gintner finished 17th and Payton Coombs finished 18th. Everyone did great. Chloe led with perseverance and Ashtyn with consistency. Greta, Mari and Carlie all had best scores and Payton was positive and experienced her first big meet.”

For true team swimming, the Raiders finished second to Rosemount by a score of 907-802. Two Rivers placed third with a score of 746. Only half of the section participated in the True Team event.

Coach McAlpin loves to remind people, “we have a small but mighty team.”

“Swimmers of the meet were Sofia Kovalenko, Lauren Beaudet, and Carlie Gintner. Sofia swam a best time, winning the 100 butterfly and took fifth in the 500 freestyle. Lauren cut half of a second in her 50 freestyle and three seconds in the 100 freestyle. Carlie had multiple best times. She cut 1.5 seconds in the 50 freestyle, 10 seconds in the 100 freestyle. Other shout outs go to: Elayna Latch 1.5 second cut in the 50 freestyle and two seconds in the 100 freestyle. Emma Leonard cut one second in the 50 backstroke and one second in the 100 freestyle. Maddy Ritter with a two second cut in the 100 breaststroke from last week,” added McAlpin

The good news is a second-place finish as a team does not affect much when it comes to sections and state outside of the section title or section runner-up title. There is no advancement to state on a team level. Teams win state based on the number of individuals they send and their performance.

The Raiders will have the JV Conference Relay on Oct. 27 at South St. Paul at 6:00 p.m. and the team will host an 11-dive invite Saturday, Oct. 28 starting at 11:00 a.m. at Hastings Middle School. Sections will be held at Two Rivers High School starting each night at 6:00 p.m. Preliminary swimming is Nov. 8, diving Nov. 9 and swimming finals Nov. 10.