Park girls swimming & diving: Wolfpack falls to rival Royals 102-74 in Cottage Grove

The Park girls swimming and diving team held its final home meet of the season as it welcomed District 833 and Suburban East Conference foe Woodbury to the pool at Cottage Grove Middle School on Thursday, Oct. 14.

In the meet, Park fell to the Royals 102-74 as Woodbury went 1-2-3 in seven of the first eight events and mathematically clinched the win eight events into the 12-event meet.

Top finishers for the Wolfpack in the meet were Emily Frazer, who earned third place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:18.33 and Stacey Strickland, who finished in fourth place in the 100-yard fly with a time of 1:11.27 and fifth place in the 200-yard IM, along with Jenny Breault took fourth place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 28.32 and fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:03.31.

After the head-to-head meet with Woodbury, Park competed in the Section 3AA True Team Meet, where it finished in sixth place out of eight teams with 689 points — ahead of St. Paul Highland Park (544 points) and Eagan (38 points).

Woodbury and East Ridge finished first and second with 1489.5 points and 1433.5 points, respectively, and qualified for the True Team state meet.

Park’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Strickland, Breault, Gabby Niewind and Frazer turned in the Wolfpack’s best finish of the meet, taking ninth place in the 24-team event with a time of 1:54.20. Also, Park’s foursome of Strickland, Breault, Niewind and Lissy Dorsch earned ninth place out of 22 teams in the 400-yard freestyle with a time of 4:09.58, just ahead of the Wolfpack’s “B” team of Alexandra Burd, Emily Oswald, Sarah Schiemann and Marit Christianson, which was 10th with a time of 4:09.86. Additionally, Strickland earned 11th place out of 26 swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 27.41 and Park’s Megan Bresnahan earned 13th place out of 17 competitors in the diving contest with 224.55 points.

Park has two regular-season meets remaining this year. The Wolfpack took on Stillwater on Tuesday, Oct. 19, after the Bulletin went to print. Next, Park travels to Forest Lake to battle the Rangers on Tuesday, Oct. 26.

Tags: cottage grove, sports, swimming, wolfpack, preps