Sections next for swim team

After an array of regular season tests, it’s nearly final exam time for Northeast Range/Ely.

The Nighthawk swimmers head west to Grand Rapids Thursday to take part in the preliminary round of the Section 7A meet.

NRE, which fields perhaps the youngest team in the section, will be looking to send individuals and relays on to the final round two days later.

It has been a season of considerable progress for the Nighthawks - who use the pool in Babbitt as their home but have a roster almost entirely made up of Ely students.

The young Nighthawks have one senior - All-Iron Range Conference swimmer Anna Larson.

Both Larson and junior Via De-Beltz were double-winners at NRE’s most recent dual meet while Tuuli Koivisto also gained a win then.

The overall roster, however, is dominated by youth.

“The girls are ready for sections,” said head coach Cheri DeBeltz. “The section team this year is a young one. We have 16 girls participating in the section meet and of those 10 of them are ninth grade or younger. We really just want this young team to gain a lot of confidence and experience in this big meet.”

Other than a “fun” meet at Mesabi East last week, the Nighthawks have been preparing for the section event, which starts at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The Nighthawks have high hopes of shaving time and advancing swimmers to the Nov. 9 finals, which have a 3 p.m. start.

“We are very hopeful that the girls are going to get some lifetime best times in the events they are in,” said DeBeltz. “Our goal is to make sure everyone has a successful day at prelims. The top 16 in each event will make it to Saturday’s finals. We hope a few of our girls will make it to section finals as well as all three of our relays.”