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The Wildcat swimmers needed a first and third place in the final event to secure a win at Robbinsdale-Cooper Tuesday, October 16. However, the Hawks edged the CL 400 freestyle relay team and held on for a 53-49 conference win.

"Going into the relay, we were down by two points. That meant we needed first place in the relay for a tie and first and third for a win," said Wildcat head coach Ed Wakefield. "Our second fastest relay (Leah Hathaway, Laura Goosen, Hanna Lee and Anna Stein) did a great job of taking the all-important third.

"I knew the first would be tough as Coopers relay has been four or five seconds faster than ours all season. We gave them one heck of a swim. The same relay team that won the 200 freestyle relay (Heidi Willhite Andrea Olson, Brogan Lee and Leah Secord) got beat by one-half second, but they went almost three seconds faster (4:00.96) than they had gone all year."

Secord had a big night by winning two individual events and swimming a leg in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. She won the 200 freestyle in 2:11.23 and the 100 freestyle in 59.90.

Other firsts went to Alex Thomsen (168.6) in diving, the 200 freestyle relay and Sarah Kopp who swam the 100 breast stroke in 1:21.06. "One of the biggest reasons it was close enough for the relay to matter was breast stroker Sarah Kopp getting the first varsity win of her career and eighth grader Bailey Strand taking an all-important third. The win by the 200 freestyle relay team was also big, of course," Wakefield added.

Mallory Schneider, Stein, Kopp and Hathaway scored first for the 'Cats by placing second in the 200 medley relay (2:16.34). B. Lee's second in the 200 freestyle (2:11.72) and Olson's 2:36.81 in the 200 individual medley helped the Wildcats into a 13-13 tie after three events.

Seconds by Cassie Schlegel (diving - 136.45), B. Lee (500 freestyle - 5:58.52) and Goosen (100 backstroke kept CL within four points before Kopp's win made the score 45-47 going into the final relay.

The coach said, "We have never come close to beating Cooper. We had about as close a meet as you can have with them. When you are the underdog you always hope that you can make it close enough to have the 400 relay matter in the meet outcome.

"This was one of the few times you walk away from a loss and feel good about it. Yes, it would have been great to finish it off and win the meet, but we did not even figure we would make it close and it came down to the last event," Wakefield concluded.

The Wildcats entertain Columbia Heights tonight, October 25 at 6 p.m. before preparing for the Section Meet in Elk River November 9-10.

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