Girls’ 400 free relay team sets Big River Conference record

• Hudson’s 400 freestyle relay team

Hudson’s Big Rivers Conference championship 400 freestyle relay team members Erika Guenther, Catie Weese, Natalie Wood and Devin Cicha are all smiles as they await their medals after setting a new conference record at the BRC Meet last Saturday in Eau Claire. Submitted photo

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The Raider girls’ swim and dive team only lost one Big Rivers Conference dual meet this season. And that’s the only team they finished behind last Saturday at the BRC Championship Meet in Eau Claire.

Hudson, boosted by a record-setting effort in the 400 freestyle relay and conference titles in four different events, compiled a score of 533 at the seven-team meet, second only to Eau Claire Memorial’s 653.5. River Falls was a distant third with 328.5.

The highlight of the day for the Raiders came in the final event of the meet, when freshman Erika Guenther, senior Catie Weese, freshman Natalie Wood and freshman Devin Cicha set a new BRC record of 3 minutes, 40.86 seconds to win the 400 freestyle relay. The foursome edged the Eau Claire Memorial team by four-tenths of a second to win the race and broke the old mark of 3:42.03 set by the Old Abes in 2000.

Junior Kayla Lorenz, junior Lindsey Bedford, freshman Marissa Smith and sophomore Abby Duerst finished fifth in the same event with a time of 4:05.03 to give the Raiders two spots on the awards podium.

Hudson earned three medals in diving with senior Amanda Baker winning a BRC title with a score of 409.7, junior Gina Coulter fifth with a personal best score of 300.1 and junior Kendall Tierney sixth with 289.75.

Guenther also won an individual title in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:01.06 and Cicha won a championship in the 100 freestyle in 53.95 seconds.

Junior Trisha Wood joined Guenther on the awards stand in the 100 butterfly by capturing sixth place in 1:07.54, while Weese earned a fourth place medal in the 100 freestyle with a time of 58.97 seconds.

Hudson’s two other relay teams both earned runner-up finishes, with Cicha, senior Megan Haney, Guenther and Weese taking second in the 200 medley relay in 1:55.63 and Haney, Trisha Wood, Duerst and Natalie Wood placing second in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:47.36.

Guenther also took second in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:14.11 and Cicha was second in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.42 while Haney finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.59. Bedford added a third place time of 5:41.84 in the 500 freestyle.

The champion in each event earned All-BRC first team honors and the runner-up earned second team honors while the third place finisher received honorable mention.

Natalie Wood contributed a fourth place time of 26.53 seconds in the 50 freestyle and was fifth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.42, while Haney was fifth in the 50 free in 26.84 seconds. Weese also took fifth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:07.69 while Duerst was fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2:09.54 and sixth in the 500 freestyle in 5:47.49.

The Raiders will host the WIAA Division 1 diving and swimming sectional this weekend at the middle school pool. Diving is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. while swimming gets underway Saturday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m.

Tags: sports, swimming, raiders, prep