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With such a long season, and one of the last fall state tournaments to be held, the girls swimming and diving awards are always a little late to arrive.

This year, the 'Cats stacked up individual awards throughout the season, and their year-end haul was no different.

The multitude of awards was expected, though, because the Wildcats had one of their best seasons to date. They finished in second place in the North Suburban Conference, losing only to powerhouse St. Louis Park. Even that meet came down to the last event, as the Orioles escaped with a 46-45 win.

Chisago Lakes also finished in third place in the stacked Section 5A meet, and with the individual competitors they did send, the 'Cats scored enough points (64) to finishing 13th in the state out of 46 teams that scored points.

The big winners on the season were two familiar faces to the swimming and diving fans of Chisago Lakes. junior Brogan Lee and senior Alex Thomsen cleaned up on many different awards. Along with Brogan Lee and Thomsen, other North Suburban All-Conference performers for the Wildcats were Heidi Willhite, Lindsay Carlson, Amanda Bean and Thomi Lee.

All-NSC Honorable Mention performers were Sam Thomsen and Amanda Bean.

A few Wildcats, including Thomsen, also had great semesters in the classroom, as Sarah Kopp and Hannah Lindeman, along with Thomsen, earned North Suburban Academic All Conference awards.

Thomsen also earned two other prestigious awards. She was the Section 5A Diver of the Year, which is voted on by the section coaches, as well as an All-State performer. She earned the All-State accolades by finishing in seventh place at the state meet.

Other swimmers that joined Thomsen on the state tournament podiums were Lindsay Carlson, who finished sixth in diving, and was also All-State, and Brogan Lee, who finished seventh in the 200-yard freestyle and third in the 500-yard freestyle. She is the first double All-State performer in Chisago Lakes history.

Other placewinners at the state tournament for the Wildcats were Willhite, who earned 12th in the 50-yard freestyle and 17th in the 100-yard freestyle, and Thomi Lee, who came in 12th in 500-yard freestyle.

For the team awards, Brogan Lee, Willhite and Thomsen were voted the three MVP's on the team, and Thomi Lee, who is Brogan's younger sister, was the Most Improved Player on the team.

Besides awards, Brogan Lee also dotted her name among the record board at the high school on more than one occasion. She set the school record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:57.85, the 200-yard individual medley, with a time of 2:18.10, the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:04.92, the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:08.72 (she also broke pool records in the event at Monticello and Princeton). She was also a part of the school record-breaking 200-yard freestyle relay along with Willhite, Hanna Lee and Thomi Lee. Their time was 1:43.73.

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