Warriors sink Storm in home opener

Laura Goll and Sarah Dens each won two events to help the Brainerd Warriors roll to a 111-74 victory over the Sauk Rapids-Rice Storm in Central Lakes Conference action Thursday night.

Goll paced the 200- and 500-yard freestyles and Dens won the 50 and 100 free.

"I thought this meet would be a lot closer than this," Warriors coach Dan Anderson said. "The girls really came out and competed well tonight."

Other individual winners for the Warriors were Alex Erickson in the 100 butterfly and Siri Smith in the 100 backstroke.

Brainerd built a 43-19 edge with Dens' win in the 50 free. The Warriors' Laura Boran was second and Aylah Pagel third.

"We hurt them badly in the 200 free, we went 1-2-4," Anderson said. "It was kind of over after the 50 free, we went 1-2-3. That was a big surprise."

Siri Smith, Mariah Moen, Erickson and Dens won the 200 medley relay.

"When we won the medley relay, that was somewhat of a gamble," Anderson said. "I knew their best relay was the medley. We decided to go with our best against their best. When we won that I felt good about the rest of the meet."

Grace Bymark, Erickson, Boran and Stephanie Hansen won the 200 free relay.

In diving, the Storm's Chloe Timm was first and teammates took third and fifth. Brainerd's Katy Etterman was second, Beth Etterman fourth and Allison Reuer sixth.

"Sauk Rapids has two amazing divers, the two best divers in the conference," Anderson said. "Katy stepped right up and battled Chloe Timm. Sauk Rapids goes 1-2-3 on everybody in diving, but Katy broke that up and got second.

"Beth Etterman, an eighth-grader, snuck in there for fourth. Even though they outpointed us in diving (10-6) we took away the huge advantage they were looking for. I thought Katy really dove well. That was impressive."

Brainerd 111, Sauk Rapids 73

200 medley relay: 1-Brainerd (Siri Smith, Mariah Moen, Alex Erickson, Sarah Dens) 1:58.88, 3-Brainerd Betsy Schuldheisz, Enid Swaggert, Ariana Pelkey, Aylah Pagel) 2:07.0

200 freestyle: 1-Laura Goll (B) 2:09.08, 2-Steph Hansen (B) 2:09.89, 4-Grace Bymark (B) 2:14.69

200 individual medley: 1-Myranda Erickstad (SR)) 2:27.89, 2-Siri Smith (B) 2:31.52, 3-Alex Erickson (B) 2:32.92, 5-Ariana Pelkey (B) 2:36.48

50 freestyle: 1-Sara Dens (B) 25.81, 2-Laura Boran (B) 27.18, 3-Aylah Pagel (B) 27.85

Diving: 1-Chole Timm (SR) 226.35 points, 2-Katy Etterman (B) 216.85, 4-Beth Etterman (B) 159.25, 6-Allison Reuer (B) 152.00

100 butterfly: 1-Alex Erickson (B) 1:06.60, 3-Grace Bymark (B) 1:09.70, 4-Ariana Pelkey (B) 1:13.00

100 freestyle: 1-Sarah Dens (B) 57.19, 2-Laura Boran (B) 1:00.57, 3-Betsy Schuldheisz (B) 1:01.81

500 freestyle: 1-Laura Goll (B) 5:42.83, 2-Steph Hansen (B) 5:47.80, 4-Alyssa Hartshorn (B) 6:24.18

200 freestyle relay: 1-Brainerd (Bymark, Erickson, Boran, Hansen) 1:50.36, 3-Brainerd (Goll, Grace Larson, Moen, Pagel) 1:52.97

100 backstroke: 1-Siri Smith (B) 1:05.57, 2-Betsy Schuldheisz (B) 1:11.51, 4-Enid Swaggert (B) 1:16.67

100 breaststroke: 1-Abby Rasmussen (SR) 1:12.98, 3-Mariah Moen (B) 1:20.70, 5-Grace Larson (B) 1:24.47, 6-Kassie Kavanaugh (B) 1:24.72

400 freestyle relay: 1-Sauk Rapids 4:25.41

Conference: Brd 1-0. Overall: Brd 2-0. Next: Brainerd vs. Rocori at Cold Spring 6 p.m. Thursday.