Warriors' balance sinks Otters

The Brainerd Warriors won only four events but their balance was the difference in a 102-84 victory over the Fergus Falls Otters Thursday.

The Warriors had 10 runner-up finishes, were third in nine events and fourth in five others to hold off the highly regarded Otters.

Laura Goll won the 200 and 500 freestyles, Katy Etterman won diving and the 200 free relay of Sarah Dens, Goll, Grace Bymark and Laura Boran triumphed.

Trailing 32-30, Katy Etterman, Allison Reuer and Beth Etterman went 1-2-3 in diving to give the Warriors a 43-35 lead, which they wouldn't relinquish.

Brainerd didn't clinch the victory until Mariah Moen, Ariana Pelkey and Mindy Jacobson finished 2-3-4 in the 100 breaststroke to give the Warriors an insurmountable 20-point lead with one event remaining.

"The meet kind of went like I thought it was going to go," Warriors coach Dan Anderson said. "I thought we should win the meet."

In the 50 free, Sarah Dens managed to finish behind the Otters' Heidi Busack and ahead of Fergus Falls' Taylor Monk.

"They had two really good girls in the 50 free," Anderson said. "Sarah's job was to split them, try to get second. We couldn't let them go 1-2. Sarah got second and beat their second girl by almost 2/10ths of a second. They still outpointed us there but we kept it close.

"Sarah didn't swim her best time but to get that place was what really mattered.

"Laura Goll was a double-winner. She's having a great season."

Brainerd 102, Fergus Falls 84

200 medley relay: 1-Fergus Falls 1:56.89, 2- Brainerd (Siri Smith, Grace Larson, Ariana Pelkey, Aylah Pagel) 2:05.17, 3-Brainerd (Betsy Schuldheisz, Mariah Moen, Alex Erickson, Laura Boran) 2:06.02.

200 freestyle: 1-Laura Goll (Brd) 2:08.46, 2- Stephanie Hansen (Brd) 2:09.61, 5-Grace Bymark (Brd) 2:12.90.

200 individual medley: 1- Sussie Kitzman (FF) 2:25.25, 2-Smith (Brd) 2:32.29, 3-Erickson (Brd) 2:30.60.

50 freestyle: 1-Heidi Busack (FF) 25.30, 2-Sarah Dens (Brd) 26.27, 4-Pagel (Brd) 27.98, 6-Boran (Brd) 28.56.

Diving: 1-Katy Etterman (Brd) 189.85, 2-Allison Reuer (Brd) 157.55, 3-Beth Etterman (Brd) 157.50.

100 butterfly: 1-Kitzman (FF) 1:04.79, 2-Erickson (Brd) 1:06.41, 3-Bymark (Brd) 1:09.12, 4-Pelkey (Brd) 1:11.21.

100 freestyle: 1-Busack (FF) 55.511- 2-Dens (Brd) 57.00, 3-Boran (Brd) 1:02.07, 4-Schuldheisz (Brd) 1:02.23.

500 freestyle: 1-Goll (Brd) 5:39.71, 3-Hansen (Brd) 5:47.81, 5-Alyssa Hartshorn (Brd) 6:13.91.

200 freestyle relay: 1- Brainerd (Goll, Bymark, Dens, Boran) 1:48.23, 3-Brainerd (Larson, Moen, Pagel, Hansen) 1:51.37.

100 backstroke: 1-Abby Fisher (FF) 1:05.21, 2- Smith (Brd) 1:05.87, 4-Schuldheisz (Brd) 1:12.78.

100 breaststroke: 1-Monk (FF) 1:16.08, 2-Moen (Brd) 1:20.04, 3-Pelkey (Brd) 1:21.45, 4-Mindy Jacobson (Brd) 1:23.40.

400 freestyle relay: 1- Fergus Falls 3:52.65, 2-Brainerd (Bymark, Erickson, Smith, Dens) 3:59.95, 3-Brainerd (Goll, Pagel, Schuldheisz, Hansen) 4:11.01

Conference: Brd 3-1. Overall: Brd 4-1. Next: Brainerd hosts Little Falls 6 p.m. Thursday.