Swimmers knock off Falls

by Tom Coombe
The seniors on the Northeast Range/Ely girls swimming team made their final home meet a memorable one.
On Senior Night, the Nighthawks picked up the program’s first win over International Falls in roughly 15 years.
Senior Lily Tedrick had a hand in four first-place finishes, including a meet-clinching first-place showing in the 100 yard breaststroke as NRE knocked off the visiting Broncos 50-44 at Babbitt.
Morgan McCelland, another NRE senior, also was a quadruple winner on the night while senior Kelly Thompson won an individual event and was part of two winning relays.
Along with seniors Maggie Dammann and Cedar Ohlhauser, they closed out the home portion of their schedule with a bang.
The meet started with NRE taking the 200 medley relay as Thompson, Tedrick and McClelland combined with Anna Larson to win convincingly in 2:07.44 and with nearly six seconds to spare.
Tedrick cruised in both the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke, while McCelland outlasted the field in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events.
Thompson and Dammann gave the Nighthawks a one-two finish in the 100 breaststroke, and Tedrick, Larson, Thompson and McClelland dominated the 200 freestyle relay.
Add it all up and it was enough for NRE to overtake the Broncos and avenge a close defeat earlier this season.
NRE scored points as follows:
• 200 medley relay - 1. Thompson, Tedrick, Larson, McClelland, 2:07.44;
• 200 freestyle - 1. McClelland, 2:19.44; 2. Via DeBeltz, 2:24.09;
• 200 individual medley - 3. Tuuli Koivisto, 2:51.56;
• 50 freestyle - 2. Thompson, 29.64;
• 100 butterfly - 1. Tedrick, 1;10.57;
• 100 freestyle - 2. Esther Anderson, 1:07.78;
• 500 freestyle - 1. McClelland, 6:21.85;
• 200 freestyle relay - 1. Tedrick, Larson, Thompson, McClelland, 1:52.27;
• 100 backstroke - 1. Thompson, 1:16.11; 2. Dammann, 1:18.84;
• 100 breaststroke - 1. Tedrick, 1:17.04; 3. Via DeBeltz, 1:24.91;
• 400 freestyle relay - 2. Larson, Anderson, Koivisto, Ohlhauser, 4:25.74.
In junior varsity action, International Falls prevailed 51-38.
First-place finishers for NRE were Anderson (200 freestyle), Jorden Borchert (100 individual medley and 100 breaststroke), Koivisto (100 backstroke) and the 200 medley relay combination of Carena DeBeltz, Koivisto, Alli Krekelberg and Grace Flynn.
• NRE had its best showing yet at the Section 7A true team event held Oct. 15 at Hibbing, placing eighth among 11 7A programs.
Tedrick led the way with a pair of third-place individual showings.
She was third in 200 individual medley (2:31.07) and third in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.17), missing out on second in that event by .14 seconds.
Tedrick teamed with Thompson, Larson and McClelland to finish sixth in the 200 medley relay.
In the 200 freestyle relay, the same NRE foursome took seventh but was within a second of a top-four showing.
NRE is at Chisholm on Tuesday for another dual meet and takes part in the Pumpkin Quad at Aurora Thursday.
Section competition looms in November.