(Chelsea Update would like to thank Andrew Thomson for the information in this story.)
The Chelsea High School girls swim and dive team finished a grueling stretch of five meets over an 11-day span on Saturday with an SEC quad meet at Ann Arbor Huron.
The Bulldogs went 2-1 on the day to send its overall dual meet record to 7-1 (2-0 SEC White). Against Pinckney, the Bulldogs won 144-38, and against Bedford the final score was 115-68. The only loss on the day came to Huron by a final of 103-83.
Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs had hosted and defeated Jackson, and had traveled to a tri-meet at South Lyon East, where they also defeated host South Lyon East as well as Detroit Country Day.
“This team has done everything the coaching staff has asked them to do this week,” said coach Andrew Thomson. “They are tired from a long, grueling stretch these past several days, and they still walked on the pool deck ready to compete and give it everything they had. These girls still put up 23 season best performances today. These girls should be very proud of themselves.”
Some of the key performances in the quad meet Saturday included the 200 medley relay team of Kauri Fields, Abby Robbins, Olivia Olk and Alexis Nelson just touching out the Bedford team in a time of 1:58.18. Nelson followed up that swim with a 2:08.14 in the 200 freestyle to edge out the top competitor from Huron. Riley Monahan and Katie Leissner also contributed a third and fourth place finish in the 200 freestyle to break up the event for Huron.
Chelsea divers Megan Fletcher (160.15) and Adrija Skiotys (122.60) took advantage of great diving competition and posted season-best scores on the board.
In the 100 freestyle, the Bulldogs ruled the pool, with Turner (54.35) holding her top spot, and teammates Olivia Prodin (58.51) and Morgan DeYoe (1:01.40) placing third and fourth against Huron to keep the meet close.
Again in the 500 freestyle, Monahan (5:49.75), Leissner (6:03.54) and Rory Krause (6:09.38) won the event for the Bulldogs by taking second, third and fourth place against Huron.
In the 100 backstroke Fields (1:08.62), Ella Girard (1:12.42), and Hannah Harmes (1:14.23) all posted season best times, but Huron’s depth was simply too much to overcome. In the 100 breaststroke the story was much the same, with Huron prevailing, but Elle Mahalak (1:23.00) also posting a season best time in the event. The meet finished up with the team of Turner, Fields, Prodin and Krause winning the 400 freestyle relay with a final time of 3:57.17.
“While the meet was already in hand for Huron at the 400 free relay, it was still great to see those girls battle through and finish strong like we talked about before the meet,” Thomson said, adding, “There was no quit, and that is pretty remarkable given how tired I know these athletes are.”
The Bulldogs return to action at Tecumseh on Sept. 17 before coming home on Sept. 24 to host Milan at Cameron Pool.
