It was a long day on Saturday for the WolfPack varsity swim team at the Metro meet held at Westminster with prelims in the morning and afternoon, then finals in the evening. It was a gathering of some of the state’s best swimmers from 36 different schools, ranging from 1A to 6A with over 700 swimmers.
The girls team of Naomy Grand’Pierre (12th), Audree Grand'Pierre (10th), Kaitlyn Stewart (9th) and Katie Cella (9th) have been chasing the state qualifying medley relay time and on Saturday night they took three seconds off their time, qualifying for a run at state with a 2:04.45 time.
Both Audree and Naomy qualified for finals individually as well. Audree dropped two seconds off her best 100m backstroke time and claimed sixth place. Naomy claimed first in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events, dropping time in both events for a time of 24.77 in the 50 free and 53.42 in the 100 free.
Brooks Merkle (9th) qualified for finals in both the 200m individual medley and the 100m breaststroke, dropping two seconds off his best IM time for a time of 2:09.76 and claiming sixth place in the 100m breaststroke. Brooks was the only freshman to compete in the top 10; he raced against seniors who have signed at various colleges and also one elite junior. The entire team is state-bound!