Belgrade’s swim teams continued to surge toward the postseason Saturday at the Stacy Frey Memorial Invitational in Great Falls.
The boys earned a 9th place finish among 13 teams, while the girls were 10th among 14. Panthers head coach Caty Flikkema noted it was once again strong performance for her athletes.
“We had another great meet this weekend,” Flikkema said. “We had best times from almost every swimmer in at least one of their individual events as well our relays.”
The top individual finish for Belgrade came from AJ Lilyquist. The freshman placed second in the 100 free with a time of 58.73 and she was sixth in the 200 IM in 2:33.43.
The boys 200 free relay also earned a runner up finish and set a school record by four seconds in the process. Kody Jensen, Troy Kendall, Mario Vanni and Jack Nash recorded a time of 1:42.63, which was less than four-tenths of a second behind Bozeman (1:42.29).
Senior Troy Kendall competes in an event for Belgrade swim team recently. The Panthers are back in action Friday in Butte and Saturday in Missoula.
Photo by Hailey Oehler
Individually, Jensen placed in the top 10 of two events, while Kendall and Vanni each placed in one. Jensen was fifth in the 100 free (54.28) and 200 free (2:08.00).
Kendall was 9th in the 100 butterfly (1:04.28), while Vanni took 7th in the 100 breaststroke (1:18.28).
“Mario Vanni had a couple big swims with a six second drop in his 100 fly to finish 12th (1:06.94) and he also swam the 100 breaststroke for the first time bringing in a 7th place finish,” noted Flikkema. “Mario is turning into a really solid all around swimmer and one that I can put into any event and have him be competitive.”
For the girls, Brianne Flikkema placed in two events. The sophomore was 7th in the 100 butterfly (1:09.29) and 10th in the 100 backstroke (1:11.54).
Teamwise, Great Falls won the girls title with a score of 243.5, while Great Falls CMR (221) and Billings West (212) rounded out the top three. Belgrade finished with 46 points.
Billings West claimed the team championship for the boys with a score of 218. Great Falls (199)and Bozeman (154) followed, while the Panthers finished with 67 points.
“This was an exciting meet as across the board our swimmers were seeing major time drops of two seconds in a 50 free, or 10 seconds in a 200 free,” said coach Flikkema. “They were able to finish their races well showing that all of our endurance training is paying off and our speed is starting to appear.”
Belgrade wraps up the regular season with meets in Butte and Missoula on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
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