Gallery • 14 Photos

Audrey Peltier

SYNC. All of the swimmers dive in sync into the water.

Last Friday, Sparks Swim and Dive competed at their conference swim meet against Central, Como, HumWow co-op, and SPCPA.

This meet was a PR bonanza as many swimmers broke their previous personal best times.

Captain Sophia Bietz said, “It was amazing to see countless PRs at the conference meet. There was a lot of energy building up in the weeks prior to the meet, along with a lot of hard work that paid off, as you can see in our results. I also think the environment of the meet at St. Kate’s, with many loud fans and Sparks pride, helped bring up the energy for the great swims.”

Adele Gjerde stood out, achieving first place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:05:30, as did Avital Coleman who won the individual conference championship in diving.

Gjerde went into the conference excited. “I knew that I had been preparing all season and I was ready to see what I could do. I also knew I was going to have to fight to win my races, so I had a competitive (and fun) mindset going into the meet.”

Her optimism and focus paid off, as did a little friendly competition.

“I have a very fun rivalry with a girl on Central’s swim team, and I swam both my individual events against her,” Gjerde said.

Both the diver from Central and Gjerde qualified for state in the 100 fly.

The Sparks placed second out of the four teams with many of the team moving on to compete in sections.

“Going into the meet, my mindset was to swim as best I could and have fun,” Bietz said. “I had been out of the pool for a significant amount of time as I am dealing with a wrist injury, and I knew that putting a lot of pressure on myself was not going to be beneficial in the end. I also knew that because there were a lot of new swimmers coming into the season, there were a lot of nerves for this meet, so I made sure to keep the energy up and be there for the team and make sure everyone had fun, no matter how they swam. I was able to PR in my 50 free split in the 200 freestyle relay, which felt great and I’m excited to see the team at sections.”

Gjerde said, “I am very excited to swim at sections. I can’t wait to see what else I can do when I’m fully rested.”

Sections are this Thursday, Nov. 10 at Richfield Middle School starting at noon.

Updated 11/5 to correct AP style errors and add information about Coleman’s conference win. Updated 11/12 to add an interview with Adele Gjerde.