A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Kashmir Mercer dives in as Maddie Dostal is in for the touch in the girl's 200-yard varsity freestyle relay. The team took first with a time of 1:51.18
Megan Chopski races in the third leg of the 400-meter varsity freestyle relay Tuesday against Proctor.
Cloquet's Hannah Sandman races in the 100-meter butterfly. The freshman finished second in the race with a time of 1:08.23. Haley Melin took first.
In a dual meet last Tuesday, Sept. 10, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls swim team fell 97-73 to the Proctor Rails. Despite the loss, the 'Jacks have been seeing solid improvement early in the swim season.
"We are doing pretty well so far this season," said CEC coach Rachel Peterson. "We've had only two dual meets and one relay meet to date. Many of our swimmers are reaching personal bests or times that are good or better than they were at the end of last season, so we are off to a great start."
The good news for CEC is seeing massive improvement in times from nearly every swimmer on the roster.
"Nearly every swimmer has significantly improved their times already this season," Peterson said. "That is difficult to do early, and we are seeing amazing progress."
Peterson is extremely optimistic about her swimmers.
"Senior Maddie Dostal is setting herself up very well for a fabulous final season in the backstroke and Hannah Sandman is a powerhouse freshman with tons of talent," Peterson said. "All of our breaststrokers - especially Halle Zuck, Sydney Skutevik and Anna Carlson - are very strong, and dropping time."
Distance swimmers and divers have also been contributing important points in recent meets as well as making progress of their own.
"Emma Peterson and Melody Hietala, freshman and sophomore, are hammering the yardage and showing strong results in the pool," Peterson said. "Our divers - McKenah Downing, Rylee Demers and Jessica Pagelkopf - are not letting their inexperience keep them down. All three are competing at the varsity level with solid dives with only one year of diving under their belts."
A huge turnout in the numbers department this year is one of the keys to the 'Jacks' success, giving Peterson a lot of athletes to work with and mold into top swimmers. If those new swimmers are able to duplicate what is happening with the more experienced swimmers, CEC fans can expect some pretty exciting times ahead.
"We have things to work on, both individually and as a team. I am happy with the work ethic I see from the majority of the girls," said Peterson of her 45 athletes. "Senior Faith Shingledecker is a phenomenal example of working as hard as possible, doing everything to the best of your ability and showing up to strive to improve every day. I hope that leadership continues to rub off on her teammates."
Now in her second year at the helm of the CEC program, Peterson says that the 'Jacks are just continuing to put the work in and hope the results will follow.
"We have been working primarily on technique and conditioning," Peterson said. "We have a wide range of aptitude for various strokes and races. We are trying to get the new girls fully on board and technically correct, so they can start to match sets similar to more experienced swimmers. We are working to fit the best relay combinations together to maximize our strengths."
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the 'Jacks swam in a dual meet with Two Harbors 109-74. The lone first place in the meet for the 'Jacks was in the 200-freestyle relay as the CEC team of Maddie Dostal, Mollie Belich, Kashmir Mercer and Hannah Sandman won the event in a time of 1:54.65.
