---

The Chisago Lakes swimmers and divers finished 8th of 9 at the Simley Spartan Invitational Saturday, October 6. The Wildcats earned more than half of their 106 points in the freestyle relay events. Woodbury swam away with the title, amassing 689 points to second place St. Louis Park's 295.

Heidi Willhite, Brogan Lee, Leah Secord and Andrea Olson teamed together to place 6th of 25 in the 200 relay and 8th of 26 in the 400 relay. their time (1:51.90) in the 200 gave CL 26 points and they earned 24 points by finishing the 400 in 4:05.03. The Wildcat's second relay team, Sarah Kopp, Mallory Schneider, Hannah Lee and Leah Hathaway, picked up another 6 points in the 200, finishing 16th in 2:00.40.

The Wildcat's trio of divers had a productive day. They earned a total of 25 points, putting their team total third, finishing behind only Woodbury and River Falls. Individually, Alex Thomsen's 250.30 placed her fifth. Cassie Schlegel scored 206, good enough for 10th place and Sam Thompson was 12th with 192.

The 'Cats other points came in the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Secord swam the 200 yards in 2:10.97. The 8th of 35 finish earned 11 points for her team. In the 500, Olson picked up 3 points for her team by finishing the distance in 5:49.40.

"Our freestyle relay teams swam real well on Saturday," said Wildcat head coach Ed Wakefield. "We swam pretty well, for the most part - just very fast competition."

CL at Benilde St. Margaret's

Back in the NSC, things didn't get any easier as the swimmers entered the unfriendly waters at Benilde-St. Margaret's Tuesday, October 9. The Red Knights outpointed the Wildcats 101-80 in St. louis Park.

Benilde was in charge from the outset in this meet. It wasn't until the fifth event, that Alex Thomsen's diving gave the 'Cats their initial first place. Her score (164.45) was 14 points better than the second place diver from BSM. Other firsts for CL went to Leah Secord (59.88) in the 100 freestyle and Brogan Lee (6:05.78) in the 500 freestyle.

Wildcat 200 medley relay teammates Secord, Sarah Kopp, Lee and Andrea Olson put the first points on the board when they took second in the first event. They finished the 200 yards in 2:13.96. In the second event, Secord's 2:11.17 gave her the runner-up spot in the 200.

Freshmen Lee and Heidi Willhite picked up seconds in the next two events. Lee was second in the 200 individual medley (2:37.11) and Willhite finished the 50 freestyle in 28.57.

After Thomsen, Secord and Lee earned their wins, the Wildcats had to wait until the last event, the 400 freestyle relay for another second place finish. Willhite, Lee, Andrea Olson and Secord swam their race in 4:10.74.

Wildcats Olson (200 freestyle), Olson (100 butterfly), and Sarah Kopp (100 breast stroke) earned individual third place finishes. Willhite, Kopp, Leah Hathaway and Rishawn Radziwill grabbed the final third place, in the 200 freestyle relay.

"We swam some different events on Tuesday to get an idea of what some girls are capable of," the coach said. "Benilde is so fast, we just wanted to see if we could learn some things about our kids for future events they may swim."

Upcoming events for the Wildcats include a home meet against Columbia Heights at 6 p.m.Thursday, October 25 and the Conference JV Championships Friday, November 2. The JV events start at 5:30. The swimmers are at Fridley Middle School and the divers take the plunge at Spring Lake Park High School.

---