Last Thursday and Friday, the boys swim and dive team headed to their conference meet to face off against all of the teams in the OK White conference. From exceptional performances, to broken records, achieving state cuts, and receiving All-American awards, the Rangers had an exceptional weekend. Two of the most notable performances from the weekend had to be from junior diver Cole Hysong and senior swimmer Avery LeTourneau. The Rangers upheld 386 points to place second overall, just trailing East Grand Rapids by 10 points.

On Thursday night, the divers went to East Grand Rapids for the diving portion of the meet. Competing against eleven divers, Cole placed second overall with 444 points. The old FHC record for eleven dives was 442, so not only did Cole place second but he broke the school record and he qualified for All-American. Junior Will Becker also had a great meet as he placed 5th with 340 points. Will and Cole will continue to dive as they will compete at regionals this Thursday at Northview. If either of them place in the top twelve at regionals, they will be on their way to the state meet.

The swimmers swam on Friday and had their timed finals. The Rangers took first place in the 200 medley relay by narrowly touching out Grand Rapids Christian’s A-team relay by .18 seconds. The team of freshman Reed Dixon, junior Benji Zorn, Avery LeTourneau, and sophomore Isaac Stewart swam a season best time of 1:37.80. 

For the next event, Avery LeTourneau got right back in the pool and swam a personal  best time in his 200 freestyle. He won first place with a time of 1:43.76. Isaac Stewart followed close behind with a time of 1:52.02 that got him 6th place.

Later in the meet, sophomore Ben Rogala swam in the 50 free, achieving a best time of 22.40. With that time, Ben just beat out some of his opponents and placed fourth. Sophomore Gavin Cai also swam this event and got a best time of 23.25 to place eleventh. 

Next came Avery’s astonishing performance in the 100 fly. Going into the conference meet with a season best time of 51.27, Avery beat that time by almost two seconds by going 49.69. Not only did he win the event, but Avery broke the Conference record, the Northview pool record, and the FHC record with his time. 

“It felt great to break those records with that 100 fly, especially the conference record,” Avery said. “It felt like a bit of a redemption swim after last year and I’m excited to see what I can do at states.”

The Rangers also placed well in the 100 back and 100 breast events. Taking third in the 100 back was Reed Dixon with a time of 57.21. In the 100 breast, the Rangers had three swimmers place in the top 10. Benji Zorn came in fifth place with a season best time of 1:01.86. Coming in behind him at 1:02.36 was Gavin Cai in eighth place and junior Sam Yeager coming in at ninth place going 1:02.90.

The 400 free relay was the last event of the evening and the Rangers went out with a bang. The A relay team of Ben Rogala, Isaac Stewart, Reed Dixon, and Avery LeTourneau won the event with a school record breaking time of 3:15.92. 

“Overall, the team swam extremely well, I think it was something along the lines of 93% of our swims were lifetime best times and I think that stat clearly shows the kind of work we put in this season,” captain Avery LeTourneau proudly exclaimed.

The team also had six members achieve the All Conference award. It was awarded to Avery LeTourneau, Benji Zorn, Ben Rogala, Isaac Stewart, Reed Dixon, and Cole Hysong. Many of the boys will continue their season by competing at the division two state meet at Jenison High School on March 27th.

“For states, we’re looking real good. At the moment, we have five people with individual cuts and our 200 medley relay and 400 free relay are top eight in the state. I’m looking forward to big things coming in the next two weeks,” said Avery, feeling confident and excited about the state meet.