Swim and Dive Team Shines at Section Finals – Season’s Stand Out Swimmer Slated for State

The Two Harbors Ag­ates Swim and Dive team has been ex­ceeding expectations all season, and their performance at the Minnesota State High School League Sec­tion 7A Finals was no exception.

On the day of the pre­liminaries, held in Grand Rapids on No­vember 7th, three girls unfortunately fell ill and couldn’t attend the meet. Their coach expressed the team’s disappointment, say­ing, “It’s heartbreak­ing when you’ve wit­nessed the long hours of grueling practices they’ve put in, but just can’t see the final result of the last three months of work.”

Despite this setback, the team rallied to­gether, and each swim­mer achieved a life­time best in the pool that day.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster of a day, but these ladies swam for our teammates who couldn’t be with us. They swam with heart, they swam with soul, and they put ev­erything they had into the pool,” said Coach Mayfield.

Junior Bella Imholte broke the school re­cord in the 200 free­style. Bella, who has been breaking records all season, did so once again by beating the school record in the 200 freestyle. After competing in the finals on November 9th, she is now state-bound for her performance in the 100 backstroke with a remarkable time of 59.09 seconds. Bel­la also qualified for the state champion­ship meet in the 200 freestyle. On top of and because of these amazing accomplish­ments throughout the season, Imholte and was named Section 7A Swimmer of Year!

The results listed be­low are a testament to the talent and dedica­tion these ladies have demonstrated through­out the season. Their hard work wasn’t lim­ited to the pool, either. For the second year in a row, the 10th-12th graders achieved the highest GPA in the section, achieving an incredible 3.94 aver­age.

“I can’t say it enough,” posted Coach May­field. “I’m always in­credibly honored to coach these amazing ladies and proud be­yond words.”

Section 7A Swim and Dive Results:

200 Medley Relay

Bella Imholte, Ava Os­wald-Swenson, MJ Wharton and Aria Oswald-Swenson 6th place – 2:03.31

200 Freestyle

Bella Imholte – 1:56.07 – Section Champion, Section 7a record, school record

Toby McDonald – 2:22.36 – 24th place

Claire Dreier – 2:23.10 – 26th place

200 IM

Natalia Smith – 2:40.92 – 19th place

Wynne Scandin – 2:54.28 – 32nd place

50 Freestyle

Brynn von Goertz – 27.13 – 9th place

Lucy Nelson – 28.12 – 18th place

Aria Oswald-Swenson – 29.26 – 26th place

Rylee Schmitz – 31.32 – 37th place

Diving

Harper Smith – 263.00 – 8th place

100 Fly

MJ Wharton – 1:14.24 – 16th place

Natalia Smith – 1:18.62 – 24th place

Rylee Schmitz – 1:23.65 – 28th place

Kate Senst – 1:28.68 – 31st place

100 Freestyle

Brynn von Goertz – 58.30 – 9th place

Ava Oswald-Swen­son – 1:02.06 – 16th place

Lucy Nelson – 1:02.61 – 18th place

500 Freestyle

Toby McDonald – 6:03.11 – 11th place

Claire Dreier – 6:28.38 – 17th place

200 Freestyle Relay

Ava Oswald-Swenson, Aria Oswald-Swen­son, Lucy Nelson, Brynn von Goertz 1:50.54 – 6th place

100 Backstroke

Bella Imholte – 59.09 – Section Champion, STATE BOUND

MJ Wharton – 1:07.20 – 6th place

Harper Smith – 1:11.32 – 18th place

Kate Senst – 1:22.19 – 29th place

100 Breaststroke

Ava Oswald-Swen­son – 1:18.15 – 10th place

Aria Oswald-Swen­son – 1:22.09 – 17th place

Lilly Johansen – 1:28.54 – 28th place

400 Freestyle Relay

MJ Wharton, Lucy Nelson, Brynn von Goertz, Bella Im­holte 3:57.62 – 5th place

Congratulations to the Agates Swim and Dive Team for their incredi­ble season and best of luck to Bella Imholte at the state meet!