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Stuck, King shine in Husky tri-meet

Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS
Mifflin County’s Ella Stuck competes in the 200-yard Individual Medley, on Tuesday, in Burnham. Stuck recorded a District qualifying time in 100-yard Butterfly and 200-yard Freestyle.

BURNHAM–The Mifflin County girls split its swim meet between Bellefonte and Penns Valley on Tuesday at the YMCA. The Huskies defeated the Rams 37-34, but fell to the Red Raiders, 55-23.

“Finally saw them come together with the things we’ve been working on all season,” Huskies coach Aaron Shepherd said. “To see the growth now that they have been working toward, I’m very pleased with a couple new all time best times that get us into Districts. We’ve come together as a team.”

The highlight of the meet for the Huskies came in the form of seniors Rachel King and Ella Stuck who both qualified for districts in multiple events.

King scored her first qualifying time in the 200-yard freestyle where she placed second in the event with a time of 2:15.99 which was also a personal best.

King came back for more in the 500-yard freestyle with another personal best at the time of 6:18.87.

Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS
Juniata's Emily Houtz competes in the 100-yard breaststroke, on Tuesday, in Burnham.

Stuck got her district times first in the 200-yard freestyle as well as the 100-yard butterfly events.

Fellow senior Maddie Baisey had a big day scoring season high times in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events along with sophomore Isabella Ziegler.

Baisey had a time of 28.71 seconds and 1:04.37 respectively while Ziegler scored times of 29.61 seconds and 1:07.36 in both events.

The Huskies also placed second in both the 200 and 400-yard relay events. The lone bpy on the team, freshman Jacob Kratzer, finished second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 29.74 seconds and also competed in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:07.20 also giving him a second place finish.

“She was on fire,” Shepherd said of King. “I’d like that Ella stepped up out of her comfort zone and did some other events that she didn’t do. Ziegler, Baisey really approached their races the right way, very proud to see that and Jacob our lone boy just goes crazy and he loves to swim.”

The Juniata Indians were unofficially apart of the meet as well. The Indians were unofficial due to only having four members on the team. But they were there to try and get in and qualify for districts.

What makes it even tougher for the Juniata squad was this was only its second meet that the Indians competed in this whole season.

“I thought they did pretty well. This is only the second meet we’ve had all season so I think they did really well,” Indians coach Amy Houtz said. “They’re swimming well, they’re dropping times. They’re just doing well considering all the conditions we’re having.”

But that didn’t seem to stop senior Jimmy Zagurskie who dropped the fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle event at 27.68 seconds.

Zagurskie also had the fastest time in the boys 100-yard freestyle in one of the closest races in the meet with the first to third finishers just being a few seconds apart.

Emily Houtz finished in the 200 yard IM with a time of 2:24.06. Houtz also competed in the Women’s 100 yard breaststroke completing it with a time of 1:16.93.

The Indians also had two new swimmers to join the ranks with senior Yadi Nreves who competed in the 50-yard freestyle finishing with a time of 36.42 seconds. The other newcomer came in the form of freshman Lexie Gilson who finished at 45.54 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.

“Jimmy won both his races and Emily was able to swim very competitively,” Houtz said. “And the two new swimmers were able to get through the races without disqualifying that’s a success.”

“Well Yadi did a flip turn for the first time ever so that’s huge,” Houtz continued. “This was the first meet he has ever swam in and completed the race. It was great. Lexie did really well too. I think last time she struggled to get through everything and this time she gotten a feel for how it goes.”

Both Mifflin County and Juniata look forward and prepare to compete for districts.

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