Bison join Bulldogs in 'fun' swim-dive meet at N.P.

Friday, January 31, 2020

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — The McCook High School swim and dive team competes against North Platte at every meet so a friendly rivalry develops over the season. This means that at the North Platte/ McCook dual Thursday in North Platte, the atmosphere was both competitive yet festive.

McCook coach Jon Graff said the swimmers and divers look forward to this meet all season long.

“It’s a fun meet for McCook swimmers because everyone swims something they don’t swim very often,” Graff said. “Plus we get to hang out with our friends from North Platte and be part of their senior recognition night.”

He added that the meet is great tension breaker late in the season before the teams head into conference and championship meets.

The North Platte dual is a unique meet because the pool at the North Platte Rec Center is too shallow to use starting blocks, which can translate into slower overall times.

Despite this handicap, many McCook swimmers posted personal bests and even won several events.

TJ Renner represented McCook in the 500 yard freestyle and won the longest race of the evening.

Freshman Leah Spencer is one of McCook’s fastest swimmers in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles, but showed she could be just as competitive in the 100 yard backstroke and 200 yard individual medley, winning both events.

Graff also noted that Nate Schmidt and Peyton Rambali both cut several seconds off their 100-yard freestyle times, a tough task since all events begin with an in-water start.

The final swimming event is another reason the swimmers and divers look forward to the evening: the meet always ends up with the non-competitive, unofficial running relay. While several lanes are fairly shallow, those teams in lanes 5 and 6 slogged through deeper water before tagging off to a teammate.

The dual started off with a traditional 11-dive meet, allowing the divers to try and qualify for the state championship meet.

While no one new qualified from McCook, Shayann Parlier improved her score to 273, inching closer to the 300 points needed to qualify for the state meet. Ethan Graff also posted a personal best of 259, improving his score on several of his 11 dives.

McCook has its final regular meet of the season next Friday when the swimmers and divers compete in Hastings.

The divers have an extra meet in Kearney on Feb. 8.

The GNAC conference meet is Feb. 14-15 in Hastings with a final chance to qualify for the state championship meet which is Feb. 27-29 in Lincoln.

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