The International Falls girls swimming and diving team recorded a pair of individual first-place finishes Thursday when the Broncos opened the season with a dual meet loss at Hibbing, 99-84.
Falls head coach Jill Herzig said the team score ended up being closer than the level of competition the Broncos faced against Hibbing, which dominated the meet and swam the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays for exhibition purposes only, giving the Falls all 28 points from those two events.
“Hibbing’s got a lot of depth,” Herzig said.
However, the coach also noted the meet had “some great surprises” for the Broncos.
Falls took the top-two spots in the 100 breaststroke. Eighth-grader Emily Saari edged out junior Breanna Shofner for first place by 38-hundredths of a second in 1 minute, 23.29 seconds. Shofner also placed second in the 100 freestyle (1:02.05).
The Broncos’ other top individual finish came in the diving competition won by sophomore Clara Wenger with 137.23 points, while sophomore Jessie Hell added a third-place finish at 115.7.
Falls freshman Abby Kostiuk placed second in the 100 backstroke (1:14.98).
Broncos senior Sarah Todd placed third in both the 200 freestyle (2:29.87) and 100 butterfly (1:19). The team’s other top-three individual finish came from junior Courtney Klow placing third in the 50 freestyle (29.66).
Aside from the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, the best finish by a Falls relay came from the 200 medley relay team of Klow, Todd, Shofner and senior Abby Oveson placing second in 2:12.10, just under 2 seconds behind Hibbing’s winning time.
Falls’ next dual meet is next Thursday at Eveleth-Gilbert.
