The FHC Lady Ranger swim team took an early lead and never looked back. And, numerous swimmers made their state cuts in a very successful first meet for the FHC Lady Rangers at Hudsonville High School Tuesday night.

Hudsonville, Wayland, Zeeland and Unity Christian came out strong, but the Rangers were too much to overtake. In the first ten heats of the night that included Lady Rangers, they responded with eight first place finishers, five second place finishers and another third place finish.

Even though no official scoring was determined at the end of the meet, the Lady Rangers proved their dominance in their first meet of their season. Not only racing against the other schools, the Lady Rangers raced against the clock.

“We’re trying to get as many state cuts as possible, and we accomplished a lot of that,” head coach Tim Jasperse said.

Junior Felicity Buchmaier played a major role in the meet, as she earned three state cuts — two individually in the 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke, and one in the 200 Medley Relay.

“I was very nervous; I didn’t really know what to expect,” Felicity said. “At the end of the meet, however, I can start to see where I’ll be heading personally this season.”

Senior captain Maddy Cole also had a successful night in her first meet as a senior captain.

“We were just looking to go out and swim our best,” Maddy said.  “It’s the first meet of the season so it’s a benchmark for how we’re going to improve the rest of the season. The most important thing is bringing the team together, team bonding, and overall making everyone feel welcome, especially new members and freshmen.”

Five of those freshmen – Sarah Schenck, Maya Gulik, Ivana Webb, Maggie Zorn and Kaylyn Whitten — had first place finishes in their heats.

The Rangers have an uphill battle ahead despite the early success. After a second place finish in last year’s conference race, Jasperse remarked on the power house East Grand Rapids, and the difficulty of taking them off the top.

Regardless of the work and difficulty of the upcoming season, Felicity said the team had an exciting night.

‘“It got really exciting after the 500,” Felicity said. “We saw a lot of state cuts get made, and it’s always exciting to come in and put up some good scores and work up from there.”