On Saturday, January 18th, the Boys and Girls Varsity Swim Team competed at the fifth Annual Millard North Invitational at Millard North High School. Due to the snow day the Friday before hand the original two day meet separated by the girls that Friday night and the boys the following morning had to be combined all into one session pushing the timeline back from a 10:00 a.m. start to a 9:00 a.m. start and the meet itself doubling in length. Many teams also couldn’t have practice the day before because of canceled school and every swimmer had to be sure to take responsibility and prepare on their own for the meet.

Some notable swims of the day on the boys side include strong performances were by seniors Jordan Stalhiem and Ben DuBay taking first and second place in the 100 yard freestyle and the 4 by 100 yard freestyle that took first place and were just short of the meet record. Freshman Noah Wilber dropping 20.23 seconds off his season best in the 500 freestyle. Junior Tanner Klahn placing 4th overall in the 200 IM going a 2:08.89 along with senior Keegan Kruise not that far behind placing 8th with a 2:13.71. In the 5o freestyle DuBay came back with a 4th place finish, and clocking in at a time of 22.74 with Stalheim coming in 7th with a 23.03. Junior Andrew Kenny places 8th in the 500 freestyle going a season best time of 5:14.58. The boys 200 free relay featuring Stalheim, Junior Dylan Fucik, Kenny, and DuBay took 3rd and got the automatic qualifying time with a 1:31.53. Fucik then repeats with a 7th place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.61. 

On the girls side junior Aubri Hukill smashes her personal best time in her 100 yard freestyle going swimming it in 58.74 seconds and getting her secondary cut in the 100 and 50 freestyle. Junior Mia Olson placing 6th in the 50 freestyle and swimming it in 25.76 seconds giving her a strong chance at qualifying for state. Senior Sydney Hall finishes with a time of 56.89 seconds in the 100 freestyle giving her 6th place with Olson right behind her in 7th with a time of 56.95 which is a season best. Finally the nearly state bound 400 freestyle relay team placed in 7th with a time of 3:54.07.

“I think we did really well, for many people on the team and including myself,” Klahn said. “I did well in my individuals and everyone on my relay teams did their thing. Overall it was a great meet for the team.”

The boys team continues their strong season with a third place finish out of 12, and the girls put up a strong performance placing sixth. The wildcats finished the meet with 54 season best times, three secondary cuts, and one automatic qualifying time for state.

“I was worried about how we would perform with the bad turn of events that was the snow day the day before and the swimmers not being prepared,” head coach Jamie Bowcott said. “Even with all that the kids jumped in and blew us away. It was a fantastic day and an overall great meet.” 

The season is now coming to a close with only one regular season meet left before the Metro Conference and State Championship meets in February. The team is preparing to do their best swimming they have all season and hopefully give both teams a chance to compete for the title.

“This team has done a great job all year supporting each other and staying positive,” Hall said. “I think everyone on this team is going to do great at state and metros because we’ve worked extremely hard these past three months.”

Make sure to catch the wildcats at their final regular season meet on Saturday, February 1st.