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Chisago Lakes 96.5, Benilde-St. Margaret's 89.5

With only one conference match to go after their tilt with Benilde-St. Margaret's, the Wildcats knew they would have to make the most of their opportunity against the Red Knights.

The 'Cats finally broke through last year and beat them for the first time ever, and with the same returning cast mostly intact, Head Coach Ed Wakefield knew he had to talent and depth to beat them again.

In the opening relay, Wakefield didn't swim his strongest 200 medley team, but it ended up working out best in the end. He didn't want to use all the Lee's and Willhite in an event so early, knowing it would've still been close for first place. So, the top relay team for CL was Amanda Bean, Bailey Strand, Nicole Bean and Araya Gamble. They took second, and the 'B' relay team also took third, enabling the 'Cats to keep the event almost even, with BSM winning 8-6.

Brogan Lee won the 200 freestyle, and with a third place finish from Hanna Lee, CL won the event 9-7.

The two squads stayed within two points of each other then until the diving portion. The Wildcats took first, second and fifth in the event to open up a seven point lead.

That was stretched to nearly 10 points when Brogan Lee and the Bean sisters went one-four-five in the 100 fly.

Throughout the next five events, Benilde spent the whole time chipping away at the CL lead, gaining a few points back here and there until they made up four points in the 100 breaststroke to trim the deficit to one point with only one event remaining.

The gamble of not using his top lineup in the opening 200 medley paid off for Wakefield, as Brogan Lee, Hanna Lee, Heidi Willhite and Thomi Lee finished in first place in the last event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay. With the first place, the meet was locked up, as that scored CL eight points, and the most BSM could earn was six. For good measure, Amanda Bean, Taylor Connell, Michelle Haslach and Gamble finished in third place, giving the Wildcats a 96.5-89.5 victory over Benilde.

It set up another big match between Chisago Lakes and St. Louis Park for the North Suburban Conference championship.

Both teams enter tonight's meet undefeated in the conference. There was a similar situation to this last year, and the Orioles came out on top. Although they are visiting St. Louis Park again in this meet, the Wildcats believe they have a shot to take down the vaunted Orioles on Thursday, Oct. 7.

Simley Invite

The Chisago Lakes girls swimming and diving team had their strongest effort to date at the Simley Invite, but they still weren't able to topple Orono, one of the top teams in the state, for the championship.

The familiar face of Brogan Lee earned the first win of the day when she bested the field by over five seconds in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:59.

Her younger sister Thomi earned more big points for the Wildcats when she finished in second place in the 50 freestyle. That was worth 17 team points for Chisago Lakes. Heidi Willhite earned sixth place in the same event, earning 13 points for CL.

In the diving event, Chisago Lakes really made up some ground, taking second, third, fourth and fifth place. Sam Thomsen was the highest finisher, scoring 324 points. Lindsay Carlson finished third with a score of 322.65, and the Schlegel sisters, Courtney and Cassie, finished in fourth and fifth place with scores of 202.60 and 279.10.

Keeping the sister theme intact, the Bean sisters finished second and fifth in the 100 butterfly. Amanda finished second with a time of 1:07.28 and Nicole finished in fifth with a time of 1:09.83.

Hanna Lee and Willhite finished in sixth and seventh in the 100 freestyle.

CL got their best finish in their specialty event. The Lee sisters, Brogan and Thomi, went one-two in the 500 freestyle, smoking the competition. Brogan swam a 5:14.87 to win and Thomi finished second with a 5:18.91. The third place finisher came in at 5:31.64 and the fourth place finisher finished in 5:42.94.

The Wildcats' top quartet of swimmers finished in second place in the 200 freestyle relay. Willhite, Hanna Lee, Brogan Lee and Thomi Lee finished in 1:46.04, less than one second behind Orono's first place team.

In the 100 backstroke, Amanda Bean earned the top spot, and the 20 points that go with it, with a time of 1:04.72.

Chisago Lakes turned in their best relay performance in the 400 freestyle. Brogan Lee, Hanna Lee, Willhite and Thomi Lee bested the rest of the field to win the event and the 40 points that go along with it. They finished in 3:51, more than four second faster than the second place team from Orono.

In the end, Orono's depth was just too much for Chisago Lakes to overcome. Orono scored 530.5 points to win the meet, and the Wildcats finished in second with 429 points. River Falls (WI) came in third with 331 points, and Hudson (WI) earned fourth with 259 points. Red Wing rounded out the top five with a total of 253.5 points.

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