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Bison make big splash in home finale of swim-dive season
McCOOK, Neb. - The McCook High School swim and dive team wrapped up its final home meet Thursday at the McCook YMCA, with familiar foes North Platte and Scottsbluff braving the cold weather for the final trip to McCook of the season.
McCook Coach Jon Graff said the evening was a great send-off for the seniors and a good tune-up for the upcoming meet in Lincoln.
“We match up well with North Platte and Scottsbluff, so it’s always a competitive meet for all three teams,” Graff said. “Although we didn’t win every event, every race was within striking distance which provided for a fun, exciting meet.”
Individual events proved to be the highlight of the final home meet, Graff said.
“Our distance swimmers performed really well, with Tate Moser and Eli Graff taking significant time off their personal bests,” Graff said. “We like to see that progress through the season.”
Other individual swimmers saw good results in McCook, which is something Graff was hoping for as they get ready for their biggest regular meet of the year in Lincoln on Saturday.
The Cotter Invite in Lincoln was postponed from last weekend to this Friday and Saturday, with weather again proving to be an issue.
Top individual performances included junior Kevin Bantam, who won both of his individual events, the 200 yard freestyle in 1:57.05 and 100 yard breaststroke in 1:08.06.
Bantam, a Medicine Valley student who swims for McCook, has several secondary-qualifying times and hopes to drop those marks this weekend to automatically qualify for the state swim meet in February.
Senior Abi Nielsen earned first in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 2:22.38 as well as the 500 yard freestyle in 6:41.42.
Junior Emma Graff was just out-touched at the wall for second place in her signature event, the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:19.07.
And sophomore Abby Renner placed first in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 26.59, just out-touching North Platte’s Nora Wehr with a 26.78.
Renner earned another first place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:05.14.
On the boys side, McCook freshman Derick Spencer came up second in the 50 free by less than two-tenths of a second to David Fitzpatrick of North Platte with times of 25.50 to 25.34 respectively.
Spencer earned third in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 55.68.
Sophomore Blake Rodewald dropped under the 1-minute mark for the first time this season in the 100 butterfly, earning first place with a time of 59.19.
He posted a second place finish in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:15.62.
While all the relay teams were competitive at the McCook hom e meet, the lone first place finish was McCook women’s relay of Abi Nielsen, Emma Graff, Maryann Kassner and Abby Renner, who took first in the 200 yard medley relay with a time of 2:04.54.
On the diving board, McCook swept the top spots with Maryann Kassner winning for the women with a score of 296.10 and Caleb Shaw first for the men with 290.75.
Emma Graff and Jackson Dellevoet both placed third for the Bison.
The McCook swim and dive team is scheduled to travel to Lincoln this weekend to face some of the biggest and fastest Nebraska teams they have seen all season - if the weather cooperates.