Girls varsity swimmers and Sami Nickerson advance to state

The girls varsity swim and dive team has accomplished something they haven’t been able to do for a while: on Saturday, Oct. 7, the team competed in the sectional competition at Nicolet High School and came away with second place.

The divers, Emma Fox, freshman, and Sammi Nickerson, sophomore, competed on Friday, Oct. 6 and had their best meet of the season. Nickerson won the diving event and scored her new personal best of 478.10, which is also a school record. With her first place finish, Nickerson will compete at the state diving competition for her second year in a row.

“Getting a personal record at sectionals makes me feel like I’ve improved a lot since last year, and I am proud to have accomplished this. I am very excited to move onto state,” Nickerson said.

The 200 medley relay took second place, missing the first place finish by 0.11 seconds to Cedarburg. The relay consisted of Leah Tunney, freshman, Caitlyn Lansing, sophomore, Talia Gottlieb, junior, and Lindsey Bjornstad, sophomore. The relay was seeded fifth in sectionals, but came out with the second place finish, qualifying for the state tournament where they are seeded 17th.

“It is really exciting that we made it to state because no one from our team made it last year, so this is a huge accomplishment for our team. It is very cool to see how much we have improved this season,” Gottlieb said.

In the 50 freestyle, Bjornstad placed second and Gottlieb placed sixth, and in the state competition, Bjornstad is seeded seventh. In the 100 fly, Jayci Scheff, freshman, placed sixth in sectionals but did not make it to state.

The 100 freestyle was very successful for the Highlanders. Gottlieb placed third at sectionals and is seeded 16th at state, and Bjornstad placed fourth at sectionals and is seeded 19th at the state tournament.

The 200 freestyle relay, consisting of Bjornstad, Gottlieb, Scheff, and Lauren Tunney, senior, placed second in sectionals and is seeded ninth at state.

In the 100 breaststroke, Scheff placed fourth at sectionals and Lansing placed fifth, but neither made it to the state tournament.

Finally, the 400 freestyle relay, consisting of Esther Zelenovskiy, freshman, Alex Buchanan, sophomore, Lauren Tunney, and Kimmy Hartlieb, sophomore, placed eighth at sectionals, but they did not make it to state.

Coach Chris Fox was very excited for his team and felt that the girls did the best they could do and more. “It is very thrilling to do what most people didn’t expect us to do after last season. No one would have expected us to do what we did and be where we are now. I am very proud of them,” Coach Fox said.