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by Tom Coombe
Northeast Range/Ely closed its season with a slew of season-bests, not to mention six total medals.
Junior Via DeBeltz and senior Anna Larson both medaled individually at the Section 7A high school girls swimming meet, and both were also part of a medal-winning relay team along with juniors Tuuli Koivisto and Alyssa Ice.
Those performances came Saturday, at the section meet finals at Grand Rapids.
“We had a great section meet,” said NRE Head Coach Cheri DeBeltz. “A lot of our girls swam lifetime best or a season best times during Thursday’s prelims. We had swimmers dropping 10+ seconds on races. It was so fun to watch and see all their hard work pay off.”
NRE wound up 11th among 12 teams in the section, but the Nighthawks had one of the smallest and youngest teams in the section.
Via DeBeltz had the team’s top individual showing, placing seventh in the 500 freestyle in 6:02.20. She maintained her spot after a time of 5:58.03 in the preliminaries.
Larson, the Nighthawks’ lone senior, gained a medal in the 100 butterfly - taking eighth in 1:10.48.
She also was 10th in the 50 freestyle in 27.16, after just barely missing out on the top-eight with a preliminary time of 26.93.
DeBeltz wound up 13th in the 200 freestyle in 2:13.03.
The Nighthawks also picked up medals in the 200 freestyle relay, as Larson, DeBeltz, Koivisto and Ice shaved a full second off their preliminary time and took seventh in 1:52.33.
The 400 freestyle relay took 10th in 4:16.53, dropping eight seconds off its preliminary time.
Anna Larson, Brynn Larson, Ivy Ohlhauser and Via DeBeltz formed the relay for the finals, with Lucy Luthens subbing for Anna Larson during the preliminaries.
In the 200 yard medley relay, NRE dropped 10 seconds from the preliminaries to the finals and placed 11th (2:11.67). That relay consisted of Koivisto, Jorden Borchert, Brynn Larson and Ice.
Several other Nighthawks had their season come to the end during the preliminary round, but even for those who did not move on it was a day of considerable progress.
“Almost everyone swam a lifetime best if not then at least a season best,” said DeBeltz. “It was a great meet for this young team.”
