The Minnewaska-Morris Gators swimming and diving team closed out the regular-season with a 108-77 home win over Montevideo, Thursday night at UM-Morris.

The Gators won seven of the 12 individual events with McKenzie earning  two individual and two relay  titles to lead the way for the Gators.

“What a way to end our dual meet season; a lot of great finishes and a lot of great highlights,” coach Sam Oellien said.  “This being our last dual meet and last meet for a lot of our JV swimmers, we saw a lot of great time drops.  On the varsity side, we are still seeing consistent times and a few time drops.

“This was a great meet to have as we head into our champion meets at section true team, WCC meet and sections.”

The Gators ended the regular-season with a 3-2 WCC record and 5-3 overall mark heading into Friday and Saturday’s section true-team competition at Alexandria, Oct. 14-15.  Results of that competition will be highlighted next week.

Coming up is the WCC Swimming and Diving Meet, set for Friday, Oct. 28 at UM-Morris followed by the Section 6A Meet, Nov. 10-12.

Gators 108, Monte 77

The Gators topped 100 points for the fourth time (all wins) during a 108-77 home win over Montevideo, Thursday night.

McKenzie Luetmer led the way, winning the 50 freestyle (25.84) and 100 freestyle (58.18), while also swimming on the winning 200 freestyle relay with Makena Thoen, Melena Longtin and Serena Mellgren (1:52) and first-place 400 freestyle relay with Becca Femrite, Longtin and Mellgren (4:08.23).

Femrite added a title in the 200 freestyle (2:12.07), while Mesa Kittelson placed first in the 100 butterfly (1:13.05) and Clare Barnstuble set a personal-best in winning the diving competition with a score of 223.1.

“Clare Barnstuble broke the  6-dive school record with a score of 223.10,” coach Oellien said.  “All three divers had personal bests, including Makarian Schott, who had a very nice night scoring 166.15.”

Melena Longtin added seconds in the 200 individual medley (2:47.32) and 100 freestyle (59.92), while Femrite was also second in the 100 backstroke (1:14.21), Serena Mellgren was also second in the 100 butterfly (1:13.4), Makena Thoen was second in the 100 breaststroke (1:20.32) and the 200 medley relay team of Femrite, Thoen, Kittelson and Soffia Stadtherr was second in 2:14.83. “One big time drop for the varsity was Melena Longtin in the 100 Freestyle, dropping below one minute with the final time of 59.92,” coach Oellien said. 

One interesting race of note was the 100 butterfly where three swimmers were within 1.5 seconds at the finish.  Mesa Kittelson won with a time of 1:13.05, while Serena Mellgren was second (1:13.2), a swimmer from Montevideo was third (1:14.26) and Lyla Stadtherr was fourth for the Gators (1:14.56).

•  In the JV competition, won by Montevideo by a 94-64 score, winning titles for the Gators were Lorin Wilts in the 100-yard individual medley (1:25.69), Jenna Detko in the 50-yard butterfly and Berdine Kleindl in the 100-yard freestyle (1:12.94). “Berdine (Kleindl), an 8th-grader, swam the 100 freestyle in 1:37.41 during our first meet and dropped to a 1:12.94 last night,” coach Oellien said.

at Gators 108, Monte 77

Results (top 4 for Gators):

200 medley relay:  (2) Gators #1 (Becca Femrite, Makena Thoen, Mesa Kittelson, Soffia Stadtherr) 2:14.83  (3) Gators #2 (Lyla Stadtherr, Leslie Murken, Isabel Guerra, Avery Svec) 2:18.03

200 freestyle:  (1) Femrite 2:12.07  (3) Sage Barnstuble 2:27.16

200 individual medley:  (2) Melena Longtin 2:47.32  (3) Thoen 2:49.71  (4) Phemie Oeltjen 3:04.56

50 freestyle:  (1) McKenzie Luetmer 25.84  (2) Serena Mellgren 28.27

Diving:  (1) Clare Barnstuble 223.1  (3) Ella Roering 169.65  (4) Makarian Schott 166.15

100 butterfly:  (1) Kittelson 1:13.05  (2) Mellgren 1:13.4  (4) Lyla Stadtherr 1:14.56

100 freestyle:  (1) Luetmer 58.18  (2) Melena Longtin 59.92

500 freestyle:  (3) S. Stadtherr 6:35.62  (4) Miranda Longtin 6:46.76

200 freestyle relay:  (1) Gators #1 (Thoen, Melena Longtin, Mellgren, Luetmer) 1:52  (3) Gators #2 (L. Stadtherr, Svec, S. Barnstuble, Guerra) 1:57.37

100 backstroke:  (2) Femrite 1:14.21  (3) S. Stadtherr 1:14.42  (4) Svec 1:20.83

100 breaststroke:  (2) Thoen 1:20.32

400 freestyle relay:  (1) Gators #1 (Femrite, Melena Longtin, Mellgren, Luetmer) 4:08.23  (3) Gators #2 (Guerra, Svec, L. Stadtherr, S. Stadtherr) 4:27.97