Harlem swim team closes out week with victory over Jefferson

By Bob Balgemann
REPORTER
Harlem’s varsity girls swimming and diving team closed out a short week by defeating Jefferson, 144-33, in a NIC-10 dual meet.
Trinity Goertz started things off by scoring 142.20 points to win the diving competition.
Harlem’s took all three relay events. That included the 200-yard medley, with the team made up of Taylor Har-graves, Kinsey Bogen, Rachel Gander and Laura Schuman; the 200-yard freestyle, consisting of Emily Decho, Bogen, Kya Fadness and Maggie Wingo; and the 400-yard freestyle, comprised of Gander, Decho, Sierra Schaf-fer and Wingo.
Three of the individual events were decided by less than one second.
Gander and Wingo were 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle with times of :27.50 and :27.85 seconds, respectively. Laney Bennett won the 500-yard freestyle race with a time of 6:59.91. Freeport’s Stevie Dobbs was second in 7:00.67; and Harlem’s Padyn O’Keefe was third in 7:00.71.
Sierra Hensley of Jefferson won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:32.56, with Harlem’s Haylee McGuire right on her heels in 2:33.13.
Gander easily won the 500-yard freestyle, with a time that was 30 seconds faster than the runner-up.
Bogen took the 200-yard individual medley (IM) in 2:36.47; Schuman won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:11.15; and Hargraves won the 100-yard freestyle in 1:01.34, which was 1:13 seconds ahead of Decho.
Harlem dominated the 100-yard backstroke, with Wingo, Bogen, Fadness, Jenna Gates and Aida Barrett taking the first five places. Jefferson’s best event was 100-yard breastroke, where its swimmers finished 1-3.
Head coach Kellie Eickstead changed her starting lineup around somewhat for Jefferson, entering girls in events they don’t usually swim in.
Second at Freeport
Earlier, the Lady Huskies varsity finished second among 10 teams entered at the Freeport Invite, continuing to show depth at both the varsity and sophomore levels.
Their sophomore 400-yard freestyle relay team (Laura Schuman, Alexis Voltz, Tessa Applegren and Taylor Har-graves) finished first while the medley relay team (Trinity Eissens, Schuman, Hargraves and Applegren) came in third.
In individual competition at the varsity level, Rachel Gander tied for first place in the 200-yard freestyle with Lauren Moeller of Sterling. Their times were identical 1:03.79. Gander also came in fifth in the 100-yard free-style.
Kinsey Bogen was second in the 500-yard (5:49.80) and fourth in the 200-yard freestyle (2:11.10). Hargraves was sixth in both the 200 IM and 100-yard butterfly. Schuman turned in a time of 1:16.93, which was good for fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke.
In relay competition, Harlem took third in 200-yard freestyle event with a team consisting of Emily Decho, Sier-ra Schaffer, Bogen and Maggie Wingo. The 400-yard freestyle team, made up of Bogen, Decho, Gander and Wingo, also was third.
Coach Eichstead said she was pleased with the second place finish at Freeport. “We had a lot of great swims that day,” she said.