The Rice Lake girls swim and dive team finished fourth at a Division 2 sectional on Saturday in Menomonie.
Rice Lake also sent two divers to Hudson on Friday, with Amara King and Sloan Campbell being the only two representatives from each school in sectional. King finished first with a score of 272.6, and as sectional winner, he will compete at the state meet.
“It means a lot,” King said about going to state. “I’m super excited because it’s my first year and we didn’t have a [diving] coach and I put in a lot of work, and a lot of extra time to get where I am.”
At swimming sectionals, the Warriors placed three athletes on the podium but did not advance any others to state. Eliana Sookiayak finished fifth in the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes and 9.79 seconds, nearly eight seconds faster than her seed time. Delaina Bowen finished sixth in 2:11.65, just below Sookiayak on the podium.
Adelyn Kopp finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke race, clocking in at 1:17.79. Sookiayak finished seventh in the 500 freestyle, less than a second off the podium with a time of 5:58. Rice Lake’s 400 freestyle relay finished seventh with Sookiayak, Ella Newhouse, Elise Johnson, and Bowen in 4:01.97.
The Warriors’ 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays were both eighth. Newhouse, Kopp, Moriah Miller, and Sari Niemeck finished the 200 medley relay in 2:07.52, and Sookiayak, Newhouse, Johnson, and Bowen finished the 200 freestyle relay in 1:49.63.
Johnson and Bowen finished ninth in the 200 individual medley (2:31.6) and 500 freestyle (6:00.29), respectively.
The Warriors had a young roster this year, and coach Bob Burdorf was pleased with the progress made, but he hopes to see even more growth next season. Campbell and Haylee Martine, two seniors who competed in sectionals, as well as Niemeck, a foreign exchange student from Germany, will be leaving the team.
“We’re a young team, we come back with almost everyone next year,” Burdorf told ESPN. “We have a lot of talented freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. We’ll have a couple of new freshmen who will really help us out, so I expect even better results next year.”
The reigning Division 2 state champion, Rhinelander, easily won the sectional title with 413.5 points. Wittenberg-Birnamwood finished second in the 14-team sectional meet with 232 points, followed by Medford (216.5) and Rice Lake (202).
The Division 2 state swim and dive championships take place Friday at Waukesha South Natatorium.
“I feel like I really want to push myself this week to maybe learn another dive,” says King, “and if I can do that dive at the meet, I’ll feel really good.”