The 200-yard medley relay team of Sarah Smith, Casey Wolfer, Kennedy Cutler and Kara Vandawater take 10th place in the state meet held at Eastern Michigan University.
The Division I state meet was held at Eastern Michigan University the weekend of November 18. While the meet was filled with some very impressive swims and dives, the Rockford Lady Rams fell short of their goals and expectations.
The state team consisted of seniors Macie DeGraaf, Emilie Hahne, Maddie Levine, Morgan Longberg, Alaina Smith, Sarah Smith and Casey Wolfer; juniors Adrianna Craft, Kennedy Cutler, Morgan Lipe, and Kristen Schnelle; sophomore Kara Vandawater; freshmen Delayni Kornak-Kotarba, Dakota Noble and Megan Schremp.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Emilie Hahne, Alaina Smith, Casey Wolfer and Sarah Smith take eighth place in the Division I state finals.
With this year’s state meet the fastest in history, S. Smith was able to break into the top 16 on Friday’s preliminaries, which secured her a place in Saturday’s finals. She qualified in both of her individual events, placing 13th in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:10.78. In the 100-yard butterfly she placed 14th with a time of :58.52.
Rockford placed 10th in the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:50.47 with a team of Vandawater, Cutler, S. Smith and Wolfer. The 200-yard freestyle relay team also placed 10th in a time of 1:38.66 with the team of Noble, Levine, Cutler and Wolfer.
The only top eight finish for Rockford was eighth place in the 400-yard freestyle in 3:36.09 with a team of Hahne, S. Smith, A. Smith and Wolfer.
Although the Rockford team had higher expectations for the state meet, 2011 had many great moments which should not be lost. The Lady Rams lost only one dual meet all year, a non-conference meet to Division II state champion Holland. The Rockford girls were impressive in rolling through the OK Red conference and dominating the conference meet on their way to a championship. They saw several swimmers establish personal bests, and Vandawater, Cutler, S. Smith and Wolfer set a new school record in the 200-yard medley relay.
As the 2011 season comes to an end, we remember the three-and-a-half other months that were filled with great swims, great victories and great memories.
Comments by our Readers