Despite Loss, Simley Swimmers Set New Benchmarks

Simley High School's swimmers collected a pool-full of season and lifetime bests in a dual meet against visiting Mahtomedi Thursday night.

Mahtomedi may have won the dual meet 116-70, but that fact was secondary during a evening in which many of the Spartans swimmers set new personal bests.

“Actually, the whole team swam fantastically,” Simley head coach Mike Bollinger said. “We swam against Mahtomedi and they ended up beating us by quite a bit, so we were behind in points, but all the way through the meet ... we had at least a dozen lifetime bests. And probably another 10 to 15 season bests."

Simley High’s Spartans had several first-place finishes: Tasha Kneer won the 100-yard freestyle in 1:01.97, Jordan Sheridan was first in the 500-yard freestyle (5:45.08) and Brittany Jurrens won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:09.68.

The Spartans also won the 200-yard freestyle relay with the team of Anna Groebner, Jurrens, Shauna Horsch and Sheridan in 1:50.29.

Groebner was a close second in both the 50-yard freestyle (27.86) and the 1-meter diving (160.00).

“On the whole I’d have to point out Jordan Sheridan swam exceedingly well,” Bollinger added. “She got season bests in the 200 freestyle. She won the 500 free event.

“Anna Groebner is one of our junior divers who kind of turned into a swimmer," Bollinger said. "She just got touched out in the 50 free. She got second by a hundredth of a second and then she got second in diving by .90. She was on the verge of winning two events. To have a diver that’s a fantastic swimmer is just great. You can just tell Anna is an all-around great athlete, not just a good diver or good swimmer.

“Brittany Jurrens had a fantastic swim in the 100 backstroke, went season best and its only a second off her lifetime best when she was tapered and rested for the section meet last year," the Simley coach noted.

The Spartans swim at Hudson, Wis., Tuesday in a meet starting at 6:30 p.m.