Austin Packers girls swimming and diving team competes at Big 9 Meet in Northfield Friday and Saturday

The Austin Packers girls swimming and diving team traveled to Northfield for the Big 9 meet Friday and Saturday, and it was the Packers taking 7th place overall with 164 team points.  For the third year in a row, Rochester Century claimed first place in the conference meet with 439 points, followed by Rochester Mayo in a distant second with 290.5 points.  The host Raiders were third with 287 team points, followed by Mankato West in fourth with 236.5 points, Winona took fifth with 188 points, followed by Mankato East in sixth with 170 points, then came the Packers followed by Red Wing, Rochester John Marshall, Owatonna, Faribault and Albert Lea in the order of finish.

High finishers for Austin included senior Olivia Walsh, who was third in the 50 free with a time of 24.89 seconds, and she also picked up the lone first place finish for the Packers in the meet in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.61, just over a second better than second-place Katherine Homme of Rochester Century.  Eighth-grader Gracie Greenman notched a sixth place finish in the 500 freestyle Saturday with a time of 5:40.11, and she was also seventh in the 100 backstroke with a final time of 1:04.26.  Austin’s 200 freestyle relay team of freshman Alivia Hemry, eighth-grader Abbie Boysen, Greenman and Walsh took second with a final time of 1:45.61, and the Packers’ 400 freestyle relay team of Walsh, Boysen, eighth-grader Leah Pischke and Hemry were sixth Saturday with a time of 4:02.35.  Sophomore Reese Norton, who has had a strong season in 1-meter diving for Austin excelled again on Friday as she took third overall with a final score of 155.65.

Austin will now be off until Wednesday, November 9th when they will compete in the Section 1A meet at the Rochester Rec Center on the 9th, and then at Lakeville Middle School on Thursday, November 10th and Friday, November 11th.