Woodbury girls swimming and diving: Record falls to 4-2 with 88-82 loss to conference foe

The Woodbury girls swimming and diving team had been in a similar situation before.

However, this time the outcome didn’t swing the Royals way.

Tied 55-55 with four events remaining, Hastings earned an 88-82 Suburban East Conference meet win over Woodbury on Thursday, Oct. 6, in Hastings.

“It was a very exciting meet,” Woodbury head coach Martin Hoven said. “Hastings has a small team when it comes to numbers but they have a very talented group. We swam very well so the loss is a little easier to take. We knew it was going to be a close meet. The races were going our way for most of the meet. We just came up a little short.”

The meet didn’t include diving, which may have put the Royals over the top as Woodbury fields one of the state’s best diving teams. The loss put Woodbury’s record at 4-2, good for third place in the conference – behind first-place Stillwater and second-place Hastings.

Six events into the 11-event meet Woodbury trailed 48-46. However, a second, third and fourth place finish in the 500-free relay by the Royals evened the score at 55-55. But, Woodbury’s depth in the remaining events couldn’t keep up with the top-end Hastings’ swimmers as the Raiders took first place in the final four events to edge the Royals.

Woodbury finished in second and third place in eight of the 11 events, but only had one first-place finish – by Mikayla Mayer in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.86.

Additionally, Sheri Li nearly won the 200-yard freestyle, turning in an impressive 2:02.75 in the event, but was edged by Hastings’ Leah Wallace with a 2:02.02 time. Also, Marina Rizzo nearly won the 500-yard freestyle with her time of 5:29.48, but took second place to Hastings’ Allissa Smith, who won the event with a time of 5:28.20.

Other second-place finishes for Woodbury were turned in by: Anna Sortland, with a time of 2:22.00 in the 200-yard individual medley; Mayer in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.65, Li in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.37, Kasey Bosch in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.39 and the Royals’ 200-yard medley relay, the 200-freestyle relay and the 400-freestyle relay.

Woodbury took on Forest Lake on Tuesday, Oct. 11, after the Bulletin went to press. Next, the Royals will compete in the True Team section meet on Saturday, Oct. 15, at Rosemount Middle School.

“Another big test for us this week with Section True Team,” Hoven said. “It has been three weeks of tough meets and we are looking to end this stretch with a win.”

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