The Eaton girls swim team battled hard against Holyoak and Windsor for a fatiguing two hours, with individuals coming close to qualifying for state and beating old records. The Jan. 18 meet began with the 200-yard medley relay. Windsor held the lead the entire time and finished first, while Eaton trailed behind eventually finishing last. Heat two showed more promise as Courtney Parsons (18) stayed in first for a good majority of the relay but fell short right at the end of both Windsor lanes, ending in third. The next event was the 200-yard freestyle, which didn’t involve Eaton until the second heat. Eaton finished in fourth and fifth place, failing to compete with Windsor and Holyoak. Event three, the 200 yard IM was back and forth as Kaitlyn Maker (18) began the relay with a strong lead but eventually tired out and fell back to third place as Holyoak took first, and Windsor second. It wasn’t until event four that things started looking up for Eaton. Emma Bjork (20), a sophomore at Eaton crushed the competition in heat two, finishing with a time of 2:29, over 7 seconds faster than Windsor’s second-place time, 2:36. Rylee Daniels (12) then competed in the same event in heat three but finished in third place.

In between relays, diving took place. Eaton’s Clarise Sviatko (19) had an extremely impressive showing that left the audience applauding. Unfortunately, Mikeldi Lewis (18), a state qualifier couldn’t compete due to a highly sprained ankle and three broken toes. Bjork said, “She’s a really talented diver so it really affected the diving team.”

Event six, the 100-yard butterfly, started the transition from diving to relays. Eaton’s Jasmyn Thornberg (19) easily held on to first place as she finished with 1:11, a second faster than her record. The streak continued with Daniels finishing first in heat two. When it came to event seven (100-yard freestyle), eight (500-yard freestyle), and nine (200-yard freestyle relay) Eaton struggled as they failed to take first throughout all the heats, meanwhile, Windsor and Holyoak took turns placing first. The first heat on event 10 (100-yard backstroke) was won by Eaton’s Cianna Burroughs (18) and the rest of the heats were won by Windsor and Holyoak. Event 11 also started off with a win by Eaton in the first heat but ended with wins by Windsor and Holyoak. The pattern continued as Eaton won the first heat of event 12 (400-yard freestyle relay), and also came through with a win in heat two. After the meet, Bjork said, “As a team, we did alright, I’m pretty excited that I was able to shed off one second off my record, I’m definitely going to qualify for state next meet.”