The Owatonna Girls Swim and Dive team finishing their final dual-meet this season against Albert Lea on Oct. 17. The girls have since geared through the Big 9 conference meet. They finished in seventh place out of twelve teams. The team has found some success this year in a talented conference with a record of 3-5.

As the season has progressed, they have improved every meet. Senior Emma Stockwell said, “The season has been going well for the team, every meet the girls are swimming faster and faster, resulting in multiple personal bests and lifetimes bests each meet.” The swimmers are eager to see what the end of the season holds for them.

The current excitement of the team can be felt between the swimmers, this is a result from the process of tapering. Taper happens at the end of the season as the team progresses towards their Big 9 and Section meets. The coaches relieve the swimmers of their long and intense workouts, and instead they have shorter workouts where they focus on technique. They also drop yards to conserve energy for the big meets ahead. Often times, this is the biggest factor in end of the season time drops.

The swimmers are not the only ones that are fired up, the coaches are too. Coach Tara Lammers said, “We have a strong team this year, we finished second at Cougar relays [a relay race meet]. That is a good indicator that we will place well at conference. We have a strong chance of making it to state in the 200 Medley relay, and with our divers.” The 200 Medley relay’s fastest time this year is 1:58, to make the class AA state cut they will have to get a time of 1:51.26 or faster in the Section meet. Junior diver Allison Ann qualified for state last year as a sophomore, and she has the goal of qualifying again this year.

The Girls Big 9 conference meet was held on Oct. 28 at the Rochester Recreation Center. The meet was won by both Faribault and Mayo. Each team earned 376 points. This is the first time there has been a tie in Big 9 history. Owatonna, scored a total of 132 points. The swimming portion of the meet for Owatonna was highlighted by senior Erica Svenby, who finished seventh in the 100 yard backstroke; the 200 medley relay that finished seventh; the 400 yard free relay, which finished eighth; and seventh grader Logan Norrid, who finished eighth in the 100 yard butterfly. The diving portion of the conference meet was held the day before on Oct. 27 at Northfield.  The divers were integral to the team’s overall score. Junior Allison An  placed second in the conference.

The girls will continue their season at the section meet at the Rochester Recreation Center on Nov. 8-10. Nov. 8 will consist of the swimming preliminary rounds, Nov. 9 will be the diving preliminary rounds and Nov. 10 will be section finals.