The Section 5A swimming championships were held Saturday in Grand Rapids with 12 teams competing for spots in the Minnesota State High School Girls Swim Meet this week.
In all, 12 teams participated with Monticello taking top honors with 513.5 points. Big Lake was second with 297 points and Foley took third. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton finished 10th.
Despite their lack of success as a team the Lumberjacks found success with Grace Moores. Moores set a pool record in the 200 freestyle in the preliminaries with a time of 1 minute 58.99 seconds, and in the finals of the 100 freestyle, Moores set the pool record with 54:18. In doing so, she won both events.
"Last year we began the tapering process of her conditioning prior to the sectionals so she swam faster in sectionals than in the state meet," mentioned CEC coach Tone Coughlin. "This year we knew more what to expect from the sectional competition so we didn't start tapering until now for the state meet. We didn't put a lot of pressure on the sectionals and just wanted her to get through it and into the state meet."
Moores did so with flying colors and will represent CEC in Minneapolis on Friday and Saturday as the No. 5 seed in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events.
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The CEC 400 freestyle relay team also broke a school record with a time of 3:56.36, but they finished sixth place and did not qualify for the state meet.
Kayla Cresap, Liz Litke, Kayla Whipple and Moores were all part of the school's record-setting relay team.
"I am very anxious to see how Grace can perform this year," commented Coughlin. "She has matured a lot as a swimmer and I think she is now ready to have her best races at the state meet."
The meet will be held the Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
