Conference Relays

Patience is the art of waiting.  Patience is a virtue the East Ridge Raptor Swim & Dive Team will learn this year.  With no seniors, the Raptors are a young , talented team and after a third place finish in the Conference Relay Meet, add “motivated” to the description.

Starting the evening with a first place finish in the 400 Medley Relay, the Raptor team of Sam Scholz (backstroke), James Tidd (breaststroke), Kent Rabideaux (butterfly) and Garrett Verhoeven (freestyle) nearly beat the pool record set last year by a Raptor relay comprised of three seniors and Scholz.  Next year guys – patience!

The Raptor 200 breaststroke relay with David Scholz, Alex Heide, Kent Rabideaux and James Tidd also finished with a record breaking 1^st only to be disqualified in a start exchange error.  Next year guys – patience!

The Raptors still finished strong in every event of the meet, finishing no lower than 5^th place within the field of ten teams.  The Diving squad, including Max Samuelson and Lafayette Doty, competed at  Cottage Grove Middle School and took 4^th place.  Stillwater was the top team overall, followed by Mounds View and then East Ridge. 

Three Raptor relays took second place: the crescendo relay (Mason Pflieger 50 free,  Tyler Langstraat 100 free, Aleksander Holleran 200 free, and Verhoeven 500 free); the backstroke relay (Langstraat, Tidd, Sam Scholz and Ryan Schiferl) and the 400 free relay (Pierce Firebaugh, Verhoeven, Holleran and Rabideaux).

The Raptor swimmers on the B relays also had some standout performances.  Ethan Smyth, who only started swimming competitively last year, has already dropped 4 seconds from his best 100 backstroke.  Connor Lisowski beat his 100 free time by over 3 seconds. Kyle Boyer, Noah Halbur, Joey Trevis , Josiah Vranyes and Brady Opsahl are also at or better than their best times from last year.  This season is barely two weeks old, the practices may be long and hard, but the payoff is already beginning to show.  The next two dual meets on Dec 13^th (our first home meet against Mounds View) and Dec 20^th (at the Stillwater pool) will give each and every team member an opportunity to step up.  Go for it!

Mary