Exhibitioning races and mixing up the lineup, the Rangers took advantage of an easier opponent in Catholic Central to focus on improving the team. Utilizing dominant performances from junior Avery LeTourneau and many others, the team dominated Catholic Central 96-79.

“We swam really well and we’re looking like we’re gonna swim fast heading into next week,” sophomore Benji Zorn said.

The easy opponent allowed for coach Dennis Neat to really explore his lineup and for the swimmers to find new events they could contribute to, breaking some of the monotony and giving the Rangers opportunities to excel.

“Coach put us in a bunch of different events that we haven’t done before,” said freshman Ethan Krampe about the opportunities of the meet.

Coach focused on experimentation this meet and he made clear that was foremost in his mind throughout the meet.

“We were able to explore some future events for people tonight, which is really exciting,” Neat said.

The meet began with the diving event. Freshman Cole Hysong won with his score of 231.55, and sophomore Will Becker took second with his score of 207.30. Moving into the swimming events, the 200-yard medley relay was a win for the Rangers, with the team of senior CJ Hier, freshman Gavin Cai, junior Avery LeTourneau, and senior Dani Ahmetovic taking first with their time of 1:42.61.

Senior Ben Rogala took first in the 200-yard freestyle with his time of 1:53.61. The 200-yard individual medley was an incredible race for the Rangers, with Gavin taking first with his time of 2:15.89 and freshman Isaac Stewart, senior Andrew Kerssies, and sophomore Roman Kalaczinski taking second, third, and fourth.

The Rangers did not take first in the 50-yard freestyle, but CJ and senior Kyle Carter took second and third with their times of 23.55 and 24.54. Freshman Ben Rogala did take first in the 100-yard fly with his time of 1:02.59, followed by junior Josh Stevenson and sophomore Roman Kalaczinski in second and third.

Avery also took a win in the 100-yard freestyle with his impressive time of 49.54. Isaac followed that up by taking second in the 500-yard freestyle with his time of 5:16.50. The 200-yard freestyle relay was won by the team of Ben, sophomore Benji Zorn, Dani, and Avery with their time 1:34.01.

The Rangers exhibitioned off the rest of this meet, already sure in their victory. The meet was an entertaining one, with many swimmers competing in different events than normal.

“We persevered and fought the hard battles to win the war,” Will said about the meet.

The meet was a great win for the Rangers and a good lead-in to the next meet: East Grand Rapids. This will be a tough opponent, and the Rangers will need to be at the top of their game going into this meet as well as meets against Jenison and Northview, who are on the horizon.

“We have some really good teams coming up,” said Neat. “The upcoming meets will be pretty exciting.”