Above: Three Cook County YMCA youth swimmers had their fastest swims ever at a recent meet in Duluth. Pictured here with a swimming fan (left) are (L-R) Ella Hedstrom, Shae Hingos and Liv Hedstrom.
Twelve swimmers from Cook County traveled to Duluth on Saturday, November 7, for a swim meet at Lincoln Park Middle School. The meet had over 100 swimmers from Cook County, Duluth, Ridgedale, and West St. Paul. Despite several illnesses and a late start due to cross country, the Northerns were outstanding.
The swimmers all placed very well, achieved personal bests, and did not have any disqualifications. Disqualifications are very common at the start of the season and tend to dwindle as the season goes on and the swimmer becomes more confident with the rules of each competitive stroke. After two swim meets, the Northerns haven’t had any disqualifications which means they are swimming smart as well as swimming fast.
A few standout moments include 100- yard freestyle race for swimmers 18 and over, in which Jeff Cadwell and Mark Abrahamson took turns being in the lead and raced to the finish with Jeff beating Mark by only 0.2 seconds. Jeff, Mark, Lee Bergstrom, and Emily Lien later took first place in both the 200- and 400-freestyle relays.
Left: Still swimming fast (L-R) Mark Abrahamson, Jeff Cadwell, Emily Lien and Lee Bergstrom.
Another meet highlight was the amount of time that each swimmer shaved off of their personal bests. Typically, personal bests happen at the end of the season. For most of our swimmers, the best recorded swim happens at the Sectional or State Swim Meet at the end of the season. It’s an indicator that this is going to be a great season for some swimmers because they are already swimming life-time personal bests and they have only been practicing for several weeks.
All swimmers achieved a personal best at the meet, but some of the more substantial time-drops were seen by Shaelyn Hingos who dropped 10.59 seconds in the 50 backstroke; Henry De-Arruda-Weaver who dropped 11.07 seconds in the 100 backstroke; Grace Blomberg who dropped 13.09 seconds in her 100 freestyle; and Ella Hedstrom who dropped an incredible 20.06 seconds in the 100 breaststroke!
Leave a Reply