Swim & Dive: Kracke, O’Reilly account for lone event victories in 102-68 setback

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The Farmington swimming and diving team continued to see individual progress despite a 102-68 loss to a talented Hastings team last Tuesday in Hastings.

The Tigers won two of 11 events, but didn't get to showcase one of their strongest competitors, diver Katrina Fitzgerald, because the Hastings pool is too shallow to hold the 1-meter dive. Instead, Hastings rolled through the middle of the meet with 1-2 finishes in the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 500 freestyle, extending its lead from 24-22 to 68-42.

The first Farmington victory came in the 200 individual medley where Caitlin Kracke swam to a time of 2 minutes, 25.01 seconds, just seven-hundredths ahead of Hastings' top finisher. Kracke also helped the Tigers to a pair of second-place relay finishes. She joined Kristin Peters, Chelsea Kampa and Rilee Carufel for a time of 1:47.75 in the 200 freestyle relay, then came back to team up with Kaitlin O'Reilly, Bethany Fischer and Peters for a 4:04.21 clocking in the 400 freestyle relay.

"Kristin Peters continues to swim out of her mind and Bethany Fischer continues to drop time every meet too. These two girls continue to show the rest of the team that work effort is directly proportionate to how you perform in meets," Farmington coach Jen Marshall said. "Along with Kaitlyn O'Reilly, they continually beat down the sets day in and day out and it shows in meets. I'm looking forward to see how fast they swim at the end of their taper."

O'Reilly provided the team's other individual victory, claiming the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:15.69. Teammate Elizabeth Wolfe took runner-up honors in the same race in 1:16.40.

Wolfe, O'Reilly, Carfufel and Callie Rossel opened the meet by combining on a second-place time of 2:04.92 in the 200 medley relay. Peters followed with a runner-up showing in the 200 freestlye, but Hastings had already used its two first-place finishes to build a 19-11 advantage.

Marshall also noted the performances of Rossel and Delaney Wright in the 500 freestyle. Both were competing in the event for the first time and finished 3-4 in times of 6:03 and 6:09, respectively.

The Tigers compete again tonight in a Missota Conference meet against New Prague at Montgomery-Lonsdale High School. The first event is set to get under way at 6 p.m.

Tags: sports, swim, dive, kracke, oreilly