The Litchfield girls swimming and diving team wrapped up its season Saturday with a handful of medal performances at the Section 3A Championship in Willmar.
Although most of Litchfield’s swimmers did not make it through the preliminary round Thursday, the Dragons had two relay teams, one swimmer and two divers representing the team at finals. From that group, four girls left Willmar with medal on their necks.
Margaret Boerema was Litchfield’s lone individual swimmer to qualify for the finals Saturday and earned an eighth-place finish in the breaststroke. She was also part of the 200 medley relay team that also earn eighth-place medals. Other members of the team included Nora Lagergren, Jocelyn Larson and Ellie Brown.
“The girls did awesome,” head coach Whitney Lind said. “Definitely some of them rallied back. The one’s that dropped time were amazing. It’s a tough section, they came out and did their best.”
In diving, Brown and Cecelia Toenjes competed in the finals. Brown moved up from 12th place in the prelims to finish eighth overall, while Toenjes finished 14th overall.
Lastly, the 200 freestyle relay team of Larson, Boerema, Holly Lagergren and Ellie Brown took 10th place to help the Dragons finish 10th overall as a team and beat Watertown-Mayer in the final standings.
“I think this was a super, hard-working group of girls that gave it everything that they had,” Lind said. “All of our seniors that came out and gave everything that they had, we are going to miss every single one of them.”
Although the Dragons aren’t sending anyone to the state meet this year, coach Lind was optimistic about the team’s growth this past season and the direction the Dragons are heading.
“I think it was a good way for them to end today,” Lind said. “They surprised us with some of their times which is always fun to see. It’s a high stakes meet, they did a good job. It was a good season, it was a fun season.”
Section 3A Swimming and Diving (Nov. 9)
Teams — 1. Hutchinson 448, 2. Delano 355, 3. Mound Westonka/Holy Family 323, 4. Orono 279, 5. Waconia 229, 6. Marshall 146, 7. Dassel-Cokato 121, 8. Willmar 110, 9. Montevideo 99, 10. Litchfield 61, 11. Watertown-Mayer 28
200 medley relay — 1. Hutch (Lexi Kucera, Madilyn Gehrke, Hailey Farrell, Ainsela Jensen) 1:48.78; 8. Litchfield (Nora Lagergren, Margaret Boerema, Jocelyn Larson, Emma Brown) 1:59.84
200 freestyle — 1. Kylie Strobel (Delano) 1:56.00; 27. Holly Lagergren 2:12.27; 32. Adallia Bruning 2:18.75; 36. Megann Wolter 2:22.59; 38. Grace Peterson 2:22.21
200 IM — 1. Hailey Farrell (Hutch) 2:09.50; 35. Lia Caron 2:46.33
50 freestyle — 1. Grace Hanson (Hutch) 23.51; 17. Jocelyn Larson 26.44; 24. Ellie Brown 26.86; 28. Margaret Boerema 27.23; 33. Abby Athmann 27.86
Diving — 1. MaKena Rasmussen (Orono) 414.15; 8. Emma Brown 298.45; 14. Cecelia Toenjes 247.80
100 butterfly — 1. Emma Kern (Delano) 56:60; 27. Arin Deal 1:11.92; 32. Abby Athmann 1:12.80
100 freestyle — 1. Grace Hanson (Hutch) 51:83; 23. Ellie Brown 59.40; 25. Jocelyn Larson 59.78; 34. Alex Carlson 1:02.86; 39. Grace Peterson 1:05.49
500 freestyle — 1. Zella Lucas (Mound-Westonka) 5:04.18; 27. Adallia Bruning 6:08.79; 28. Nora Lagergren 6:11.05; 36. Megann Wolter 6:31.81
200 freestyle relay — 1. Hutch (Lexi Kucera, Mikayla Witte, Ainsela Jensen, Grace Hanson) 1:37.01; 10. Litchfield (Jocelyn Larson, Margaret Boerema, Holly Lagergren, Ellie Brown) 1:47.24
100 backstroke — 1. Emma Kern (Del) 56.83; 20. Nora Lagergren 1:09.45; 27. Adeline Lundin 1:13.07
100 breaststroke — 1. Ava Brogren (Willmar) 1:08.71; 8. Margaret Boerema 1:12.11; 8. Margaret Boerema 1:11.83; 19. Holly Lagergren 1:15.48; Emily Peterson DQ
400 freestyle relay — 1. Hutch (Grace Hanson, Madison Witte, Mikayla Witte, Hailey Farrell) 3:33.16; Litchfield (Abby Athmann, Alex Carlson, Grace Peterson, Holly Lagergren) DQ
