Albert Lea girls’ swim team drops last home meet of the regular season

 

The Albert Lea girls’ swim and dive team hosted Faribault Tuesday night in its final home meet of the year.

Despite taking home six first-place finishes and one second-place finish, the Tigers came up just short of the Falcons, 95-84.

The Tigers started the night on a positive note, winning the first race of the night: the 200-yard medley relay. The team of sophomore Jaeda Koziolek, senior Emily Taylor, and freshmen Taya Jeffrey and Brooke Hanson finished with a time of 2:02.33.

Sophomore Jayden Christensen took third place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:31.63, followed by Albert Lea’s second win of the night — when sophomore Jain Ishika finished with a time of 2:51.59 in the 200-yard individual medley.

Taylor would make it back-to-back wins for the Tigers with a win in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 26.16. The Tigers took a hit with no divers on the team, giving up 13 points to the Falcons in that one event. However, they weren’t ready to give up just yet, when Koziolek recorded her second win of the night — finishing with a time of 1:05.64 in the 100-yard butterfly.

Albert Lea then took three third-place finishes in a row with Jeffrey in the 100-yard freestyle (1:03.92), Christensen in the 500-yard freestyle (6:45.77), and the team of Hanson, Christensen, junior Esperanza Johnson and freshman Leah Rognes in the 200-yard freestyle relay (2:02.13).

Koziolek and Taylor would do their best to put the Tigers back in contention, with Koziolek taking first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.08) and Taylor winning the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.26), but it wouldn’t be enough — coming up 11 points short.

The Tigers will be back in the pool again Oct. 27 when they travel to Rochester for the Big Nine Conference meet.