Rochester John Marshall barely outswims Albert Lea in big Nine showdown

 

Albert Lea hosted Rochester John Marshall Thursday night in a Big Nine Conference swim and dive showdown.

Despite stellar performances from a few Tigers, they were unable to match the Rockets in depth, falling 93-81.

In the first event of the night, junior Ishika Jain, sophomores Taya Jeffrey and Aliyah Studier, and eighth grader Emery Brouwers took third place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:12.30.

Sophomore Taylor Palmer followed that up with a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:27.28, just ahead of teammate senior Odelia Jensen, who came in fourth with a time of 2:39.40.

Jeffrey, Jain and eighth grader Hatty Adams swam in the 200-yard individual medley next and came in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively. Jeffrey came in with a time of 2:38.19, Jain with a time of 2:55.57 and Adams with a time of 3:03.30.

In the shortest event of the night, the 50-yard freestyle, sophomore Brooke Hanson finished the highest for the Tigers in second place with a time of 28.29. Studier and Brouwers were close behind in fourth and fifth places, respectively, with times of 28.74 and 28.95.

After a break for diving and a short warm up period, the Tigers were back in the pool. Adams was the lone Tiger in the 100-yard butterfly and came in fourth place with a time of 1:23.74.

Brouwers and Studier both swam in the 100-yard freestyle and came in third and fourth places, respectively. Brouwers with a time of 1:03.54 and Studier with a time of 1:04.34.

Moving into the longest event of the meet, the 500-yard freestyle, Hanson came in fourth place with a time of 6:47.22, Palmer came in fifth place with a 6:49.03 and Jensen came in sixth with a time of 7:19.16.

Down 96-29 with only four events remaining, the Tigers were too far behind to catch up. Junior Jaeda Koziolek put some energy back into the team, swimming her first event of the night in the 200-yard freestyle relay alongside Hanson, Palmer and freshman Ava Troster. The team came in second place in the event with a time of 1:53.63.

Koziolek continued her dominance in the pool by taking first place in the very next event, the 100-yard backstroke. Koziolek finished with a time of 1:04.62. Jeffrey took fourth with a time of 1:13.85 and sophomore Katelynn Nelson came in sixth with a time of 1:24.85.

Koziolek again took first place, this time in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:15.19. Jain also competed in the event, coming in fifth with a time of 1:26.23.

The final event of the night had the team of Jeffrey, Studier, Hanson and Koziolek competing in the 400-yard freestyle. The team took second place with a time of 4:09.19

The Tigers will be back in the pool Saturday when they travel to Austin for a multi-team invite.