(Chelsea Update would like to thank Andrew Thomson for the information in this story.)
After earning runner-up at the Dewitt Invitational for the second straight year, the Chelsea girls swim and dive team traveled to Ann Arbor Huron to take on the River Rats.
“Despite outnumbering almost every team we will face this season, our team is very young, with 19 of our 41 athletes being freshmen,” said head coach Dave Jolly, who added, “This will be a tremendous team moving forward, but we are very young this year, and learning as we go.”
The Bulldogs fought the odds on Thursday night, holding their own through the first four events.
- In the 200 medley relay, the team of Jordan Fannin, Abby Robbins, Greta Robbins and Fayth Frazier came in second, with a time of 2:04.32.
- In the 200 freestyle, Olivia Prodin finished third (2:20.64) and Morgan DeYoe was fourth (2:22.24).
- The 200 IM saw Taylor Brodbeck touch second (2:31.32) and Abby Robbins finish fourth (2:32.03).
- Chelsea freshman Alexis Nelson finished first in the 50 freestyle (25.54), with Fannin touching third (27.40) and Frazier fourth (27.86).
Through the first four events, the Bulldogs were down 12 points.
- The diving event saw Lily Francisco take third place (189.80 points) and Angelia Daman fourth place (179.65 points).
- In the 100 butterfly, Fannin clocked a 1:11.43, good enough for second place. Nelson again touched first in the 100 freestyle with a time of 56.97, while Frazier touched third (59.97) and Brodbeck was fourth (1:00.27).
- The 500 freestyle saw Prodin take fourth (6:21.67) and Olivia Ousley take fifth (6:22.49).
- The Bulldogs were narrowly edged out in the 200 freestyle relay, finishing 0.67 seconds behind Huron. The team of Nelson, Brodbeck, Frazier and Fannin ended up with a 1:48.99. The team of DeYoe, Rheana Grudzinski, Erin McDonnell and Molly Olk snuck in for third place (1:56.76).
“There were some mistakes on the A 200 free relay tonight that cost those girls a first place finish. With a young team, those are learning moments that we will focus on in practice,” said Jolly.
- The top Bulldog in the 100 backstroke was Allison Hause, finishing fourth (1:15.35), while the 100 breaststroke saw Abby Robbins touch second (1:16.21). The girls finished by taking second in the 400 freestyle relay (4:08.34) with the team of Nelson, Prodin, DeYoe and Brodbeck.
The Bulldogs ended up falling to the River Rats by a final of 118-68. They will now look forward to traveling to Milan to face the Big Reds tonight and will host Dexter on Thursday night.
The week will conclude when the team travels to Holland for the Division 3 Mid-Season Invitational on Saturday.
