This weekend, ten Lady Ranger swimmers competed individually at the MISCA meet at Eastern Michigan University. The girls competed very hard and were able to put up great scores, two of those achieving qualifying times for States.

The two girls who qualified for States were sophomore Emily Johnson and freshman Jessica Doyel in the 100-yard Breaststroke. Both girls have been working very hard this year to achieve these positions and hope to improve even more when they arrive at States.

“The relays were really good,” Jessica said. “Although there were some that weren’t that great, overall I thought we did really well.”

Emily and Jessica both put up great times with Emily finishing with a 1:10.05 and Jessica finishing with a 1:10.52. Freshman Maggie Hier was able to drop her time a little over three seconds in the 200-yard IM and sophomore Olivia Hooper also improved her time during this meet with a final time of 1:01.40 in the 100-yard Backstroke, achieving her fastest time this year. Junior Sarah Schenck finished with a final time of 2:22.20 in the 200-yard IM and a 1:04.05 in the 100-yard Butterfly. Senior Kara Bolger was also able to swim her fastest time this season in the 50-yard Freestyle, with a finishing time of 25.66.

“I was super excited to reach my personal best this year,” senior Kara Bolger said. “I’ve been working four years for this so it was really exciting.”

One of their biggest competitors this year is EGR, to whom they’ve been competing with all year. The girls worked very hard and have been continuing to work hard to rise up and take down the Pioneers. Head Coach Dennis Neat is proud of his team for fighting hard against EGR and shows a lot of pride in these girls as well as constantly pushing them to do better.

“We have a thorn in our conference: East Grand Rapids,” Neat said. “We are just trying to be competitive in every meet and see how far we can improve.”

All girls competed well this weekend and really put in their best effort. Both the girls swim team and dive team will be participating in a head-to-head meet against the Wildcats of Jenison High School tonight.