NLC Swimming: Wihebrink In Position For Possible Title
MIDDLEBURY – Warsaw’s Delaney Wihebrink will have her hands full, but is in good position after Thursday’s Northern Lakes Conference Girls Swimming Championship preliminaries.
Wihebrink enters Saturday’s championship round the top seed in the breaststroke, but only by a little bit. Wihebrink posted a 1:08.03, but has plenty of company with Northridge’s duo of Haley Dygert and Jenna Nethercutt both within four-tenths of a second behind. Wawasee’s Rileigh Atwood is also in striking range, sitting at 1:09.51 and alive in the championship swim.
Wihebrink is also swimming in the finals of the individual medley, posting a 2:17.10 for the third seed. Northridge’s Sydnee Emerson had the top qualifying swim in the IM at 2:09.08. Wihebrink’s teammate, Taylor Gunter, is also alive in the IM championship after qualifying eighth.
Warsaw has seven other individual swims in the championship flight, Gunter qualifying for a second event by landing eighth in the butterfly. Olivia Herman was fifth in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 50 freestyle and Laurel Moeller squeaked into both the 200 and 500 freestyles in eighth place. Bella Coffing and Lauren Kuhl were both eighth in qualifying, Coffing in the 50 free and Kuhl in the backstroke.
NorthWood’s Kate Jarvis is alive in the 100 free after placing eighth and Wawasee had one other swimmer make the finals, Ella Park’s fifth-place run in the 500 free.
All eight of the NLC member schools had their relays qualify in all three disciplines.
Northridge, as no surprise, is the team to beat after posting nine top times heading into Saturday. The Raiders were again undefeated in the round robin at 7-0 and will bring in a trio of divers that will also perch at or near the top of those standings. Sydnee Emerson (fly, IM), Elsa Fretz (100, 200), Lauren Miller (50) and Caitlin Clark (500) are the Northridge top seeds heading into Saturday, and Miller nearly took a second middle lane but was edged out by Concord’s Maddisen Lantz by three-hundredths in the backstroke.
Diving begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Northridge, with swim finals starting at 1 p.m. with the diving finals worked into the main event.