CEC swims to third with help from the entire team

The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls swim team finished third in the Section 7A True Team Meet held Saturday in Hibbing.

Scoring in a True Team meet is a bit different than regular meets. At a True Team event, scoring is based on the concept that every team member’s finish counts toward the team score. First place is worth as many points as the number of athletes entered in that particular event ,and so on down the line.

“We took third overall which is a testament to our young team’s upcoming strength,” said CEC coach Rachel Peterson. “We had a number of girls with significant time drops in their races and the girls pulled together as a team to support one another and really get our relays pumped up to do well.”

The opening event of the day was the one-meter diving event, which was won by Kailey Fossell of Mesabi East, but CEC's Jessica Pagelkopf finished ninth and picked up some valuable points in the process.

Next up it was the 200-yard medley relay. CEC had two teams finish in the top 20. Finishing fifth was the team of Maddie Dostal, Madeline Gorski, Hannah Sandman and Megan Chopskie. The CEC team of Taylor Wenneson, Halle Zuck, Melody Hietala and Emma Peterson finished 17th.

The third event of the day was the 200-yard freestyle and CEC got a big performance out of Hannah Sandman, who picked up 41 points by finishing in fourth place. The ’Jacks also got top 20 finishes from Mollie Belich (14th), Emma Peterson (16th) and Taylor Wenneson (19th).

Maddie Dostal was the lone top 20 finisher for CEC in the 200-yard IM when she finished in 11th place. Megan Chopskie and Seija Suominen finished in 13th and 18th place, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle event.

In the 100-yard butterfly event, CEC's only top 20 finish came from Hannah Sandman who was ninth in a time of 1:10.3.

CEC had three top 20 finishes in the 100-yard freestyle with Kashmir Mercer taking 16th; Mollie Belich and Seija Suominen finished 19th and 20th, respectively.

Emma Peterson led the ’Jacks in the 500-yard freestyle by taking eighth place. Melody Hietala added a 10th place finish and Julia Peterson also scored points by finishing 14th.

The CEC 200-yard freestyle relay team consisting of Maddie Dostal, Seija Suominen, Megan Chopskie and Hannah Sandman recorded an impressive fourth place finish. CEC also got a 15th place finish from Kashmire Mercer, Faith Shingledecker, Rylee Demers and Mollie Belich.

Maddie Dostal and Megan Chopskie were impressive in the 100-yard backstroke by finishing fifth and ninth respectively and notching important points for the CEC team score.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, the Lumberjacks had four swimmers in the top 20 led by Madeline Gorski in seventh, Sydney Skutevik in 11th, followed by Anna Carlson in 12th and Halle Zuck in 14th place.

The day’s final event was the 400-yard freestyle relay. CEC had two teams finish in the top 20. The team of Kashmire Mercer, Faith Shingledecker, Seija Suominen and Mollie Belich took eighth place, while the CEC team of Melody Heitala, Julia Peterson, Taylor Wenneson and Emma Peterson placed 10th.

Mesabi East won the True Team event with 1,887 points, second place went to Hibbing with 1,792 points, CEC was third with 1,631 points followed by Two Harbors, Proctor-Hermantown, Virginia, Denfeld, International Falls, Eveleth-Gilbert, Northeast Range-Ely and Chisholm.