Freedom swim coach Alexa Kutch made it clear to the Patriots that their meet against Whitehall was certainly winnable after last year’s one-point, girls-team loss.

“I think the girls definitely showed up today because I had prepped them and told them this is a meet where they’re equal to us, and you have to prove yourself in the water. [Whitehall’s] gonna prove themselves in the water,” said Kutch. “I tried to strategically place people where I thought they could get points, but I more strategically placed them so they could drop time in their events that they’ve been working on.”

The Patriot girls opened the meet with a 200 medley relay win by Alexia Ragab, Alivia Deemer, Lily Campbell, and Laney Stewart with a time of 2:07.76 and went on to defeat the Zephyr girls, 93-82, on Jan. 3 at Freedom.

In the next event, Ragab pulled away in the last two laps of the 200 free to take first place in 2:22.21, followed by Deemer winning the 200 IM in 2:30.22.

Whitehall’s Kendra Musselman sprinted to first in the 50 free in 28.11 with Stewart and Paige Anderson scoring second and third-place points for the Pates.

Freedom diver Hayden Taylor kept the girls team ahead with six points and a diving score of 206.05.

“I would give a big shoutout to our divers,” said Kutch. “Last year, we lost this (girls) meet by one point, and I think a big part of it was that we didn’t have our divers, so this was a big win for us. I did the calculations, and I believe we had 95 percent best times, and this is only our fourth meet, so to have 95 percent best times from swimmers of all abilities is awesome.”

Kyra Giedl won the 100 fly for Whitehall in 1:11, and in the 100 free, Freedom’s Stewart placed first in 1:05.26 with Ryann Giedl coming in second in 1:05.67.

“Last time I swam it, I was sick and went really slow, but before the race, my mom said just go as fast as you can, so I saw that [Ryann Giedl] was beating me out, and I kicked it in and tried to beat her,” Stewart said. “It feels really good. I’m just glad I could be a part of it and help them out.”

Musselman won the 500 free in 6:14.39, and Freedom’s Campbell and Kaylee Buglino placed second and third, respectively.

Whitehall’s girls then won the 200 free relay with the foursome of Greta O’Brien, Ryann Giedl, Jenna Giedl, and Kyra Giedl in 1:57.58, narrowing the gap by seven points.

But Ragab won the 100 backstroke in 1:10.82, Deemer won the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.12, and the Patriot girls closed out the meet with a win in the 400 free relay by Stewart, Anderson, Ragab, and Deemer with a time of 3:43.68.

“We knew, coming in as best we could, that it was gonna be a couple of points, and we figured Freedom had those couple of points,” said Whitehall coach Pete Rile. “There were three or four races that were decided by less than a second, and we lost them all, which is about an eight-point swing in an 11-point meet, so we’re down three. I looked at one coaching thing we could’ve done to switch things up a little better, and it probably would’ve been a four-point swing, and we were that close to being able to pull it off.”

Like Coach Kutch, Coach Rile was extremely pleased with his swimmers’ performances.

“Excellent times, outstanding times, and it wasn’t just the new kids; it was the kids who’ve been swimming for awhile,” Rile said. “You don’t expect that right now without trying to do that, and it was the competition that made the good times, and that’s what was fun.”