That’s the case again this year and the Chippewas would like to keep the order the same.
The defending conference champion Chippewas edged the Lakers 92-88 on Thursday night at the Paine Aquatic Center to move to 3-0 in the league and take over first place.
“Both teams swam well,” said Manistee coach Corey Van Fleet. “They’ll be there in the end.”
Although Spring Lake had a 46-26 edge in bodies, the Chippewas prevailed in the numbers that counted.
“Very big,” Manistee senior Sara Wehrmeister said of the win. “When we heard they were bringing 50, we’re like, ‘we don’t got this.’ I know that’s not the right mindset to have, but we were so intimidated by their big team. The whole time Corey was like, ‘we’ve got this, we’ve got this.’”
Spring Lake won seven of the 12 events and Manistee didn’t have anyone available to score in diving. But the Chippewas compiled enough points in other places to stay in front and second- and third-place finishes in the 400-yard freestyle relay final event secured the win.
“The whole idea was to get enough seconds, thirds and fourths,” Van Fleet said, “and we did it.”
Manistee won two of the three relays, including the 200-yard medley, as a new grouping of Valerie Urban, Maddy Applegarth, Syriah Dobis and Jessica Gustad finished in 1:58.99 to meet a Division 3 state finals qualifying time.
