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Grand Rapids Christian High School

Girls Varsity Swimming


Game Summaries & Team News
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Girls Varsity Swimming and Diving in Conference Finals
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
This last weekend the team headed to Northview for the 2022 OK White Conference Championship Meet. We started off the meet with Friday Prelims swimming multiple in season best times across the board. The divers came out strong as we headed into finals on Saturday!  Saturday morning our A 200-medly relay of Carpenter/Hoekstra/Mills/Mills took 4th to kick start the meet for the Eagles. They dropped a second and a half from their seed time the day before and are currently ranked 3rd in state. Emily Hoekstra then took to the 200 free with an amazing swim taking 3rd in the event with a 1:56.59 — a 1.40 second time drop from the day before! Piper Sadowski and Maeve Harkness had excellent swims in the 200 free as well finishing 14th and 15th in the race. Veda Harkness continued to put in the work in the 200 IM dropping again from her prelim swim in the 200 IM as she touched in 10th place for the team! Katelyn Vander Heide touched in 10th and followed by Greta Vance closing out her final 200 IM in the conference final. A speedy 50 free wrapped up the first half of the meet as Grace Carpenter touched 3rd with a 24.72! Janie Mills continued to shave time finishing 11th and Emily Herman took on the C final for the Eagles. All 24 swimmers in the event finished within a 4 second time span of each other — way to be gritty with your swims!  What a great dive meet as well for our team! Showing up to finals with the most athletes in our program's history. Natalie Wickstrom took 5th place followed by Emily Setlock in 6th and Ella Vandenberg in 8th. 3 divers in the top 8 is an incredible moment for this program! Lily McGowan finished in 12th followed by Lainy Vanderploeg. All of these divers will be headed to Hamilton on Thursday for Diving Regionals.  The 100 fly started our swim portion again as Juliana Mills broke her minute time in the event finishing 3rd with a 59.66! Grace Carpenter came in 5th and Katelyn Vander Heide touched in 13th in the B final. Juliana is currently ranked 4th in the state followed by Grace Carpenter who is ranked 8th. Another splash and dash in the 100 free and Veda Harkness took 9th in the B final and Janie Mills took 11th! Lindsey Wierenga continued to drop time in the event as well, touching in the C final at a 59.71.  A big end of season finish to our 500 freestylers as Piper Sadowski finished in 7th place! Ali Buist made it back, finishing in 16th and so did Lucy Molenbeek. Congrats to these 2 freshmen who made it back to finals in a new event for them both this year. Our 200 free relay continued to drop time as Carpenter/Mills/Harkness/Hoekstra touched the wall in 4th place. For extra context we swim in the fastest conference in the state of Michigan and are the only D3 team. Given their efforts, we currently sit second in the state for this relay and are a half second behind Holland Christian.  Julianna Mills and Maeve Harkness took on the B final for the 100 back finishing in 12th and 16th place with great end of season swims both dropping time in this meet! Micah Heerema showed up as well for the Eagles! Emily Hoekstra was on fire as she touched 3rd in the 100 breast, shaving off some more time from her prelim swim! She is currently ranked 4th in the state. Kaylee Enders shaved off a little time as well finishing the race in 12th place.  The meet ended with a fight for the finish as we competed for our final state relay. Across the board we had excellent swims and multiple girls under the minute barrier. Huge shout out to our B relay for your hard work in this event! The A relay of Harkness/Mills/Wierenga/Harkness touched the wall in 5th place. The relay is currently ranked 13th for state.  Congrats to all our swimmers and divers this season and best of luck to those headed into state championship! The team ended the meet in 5th place this year.
Girls Varsity Swimming falls to Forest Hills Central 90-96
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: 90 - 96
Girls Varsity Swimming take 2nd at mid-season invitational
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
Varsity Eagles tie with Holland Christian and beat Unity Christian
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
Girls Varsity Swimming vs. Multiple Opponents
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
Girls Varsity Swimming and Diving in Conference Finals
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
This last weekend the team headed to Northview for the 2022 OK White Conference Championship Meet. We started off the meet with Friday Prelims swimming multiple in season best times across the board. The divers came out strong as we headed into finals on Saturday!  Saturday morning our A 200-medly relay of Carpenter/Hoekstra/Mills/Mills took 4th to kick start the meet for the Eagles. They dropped a second and a half from their seed time the day before and are currently ranked 3rd in state. Emily Hoekstra then took to the 200 free with an amazing swim taking 3rd in the event with a 1:56.59 — a 1.40 second time drop from the day before! Piper Sadowski and Maeve Harkness had excellent swims in the 200 free as well finishing 14th and 15th in the race. Veda Harkness continued to put in the work in the 200 IM dropping again from her prelim swim in the 200 IM as she touched in 10th place for the team! Katelyn Vander Heide touched in 10th and followed by Greta Vance closing out her final 200 IM in the conference final. A speedy 50 free wrapped up the first half of the meet as Grace Carpenter touched 3rd with a 24.72! Janie Mills continued to shave time finishing 11th and Emily Herman took on the C final for the Eagles. All 24 swimmers in the event finished within a 4 second time span of each other — way to be gritty with your swims!  What a great dive meet as well for our team! Showing up to finals with the most athletes in our program's history. Natalie Wickstrom took 5th place followed by Emily Setlock in 6th and Ella Vandenberg in 8th. 3 divers in the top 8 is an incredible moment for this program! Lily McGowan finished in 12th followed by Lainy Vanderploeg. All of these divers will be headed to Hamilton on Thursday for Diving Regionals.  The 100 fly started our swim portion again as Juliana Mills broke her minute time in the event finishing 3rd with a 59.66! Grace Carpenter came in 5th and Katelyn Vander Heide touched in 13th in the B final. Juliana is currently ranked 4th in the state followed by Grace Carpenter who is ranked 8th. Another splash and dash in the 100 free and Veda Harkness took 9th in the B final and Janie Mills took 11th! Lindsey Wierenga continued to drop time in the event as well, touching in the C final at a 59.71.  A big end of season finish to our 500 freestylers as Piper Sadowski finished in 7th place! Ali Buist made it back, finishing in 16th and so did Lucy Molenbeek. Congrats to these 2 freshmen who made it back to finals in a new event for them both this year. Our 200 free relay continued to drop time as Carpenter/Mills/Harkness/Hoekstra touched the wall in 4th place. For extra context we swim in the fastest conference in the state of Michigan and are the only D3 team. Given their efforts, we currently sit second in the state for this relay and are a half second behind Holland Christian.  Julianna Mills and Maeve Harkness took on the B final for the 100 back finishing in 12th and 16th place with great end of season swims both dropping time in this meet! Micah Heerema showed up as well for the Eagles! Emily Hoekstra was on fire as she touched 3rd in the 100 breast, shaving off some more time from her prelim swim! She is currently ranked 4th in the state. Kaylee Enders shaved off a little time as well finishing the race in 12th place.  The meet ended with a fight for the finish as we competed for our final state relay. Across the board we had excellent swims and multiple girls under the minute barrier. Huge shout out to our B relay for your hard work in this event! The A relay of Harkness/Mills/Wierenga/Harkness touched the wall in 5th place. The relay is currently ranked 13th for state.  Congrats to all our swimmers and divers this season and best of luck to those headed into state championship! The team ended the meet in 5th place this year.
Girls Varsity Swimming falls to Forest Hills Central 90-96
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: 90 - 96
Quick meet last night as GRC took on FHC in a home dual meet. With a smaller squad last night I wanted to take today to highlight a few different events! The meet started with the 200 medley relays taking 2nd-3rd and 5th place. Julianna Mills took second in the 200 IM as she continues to tackle that event this season. GRC took 1-2-4-5-6-7-8 in the 50 free! Congrats to Carpenter-Harkness-Enders- Herman-Pegman-Wierenga-Sanders for rocking the blocks in that event.  Big night over on the diving boards which is our overall highlight. Ella VandenBerg crushed it because of her best friend Olivia May came to watch- we always appreciate extra fans in the crowd! Super star Natalie Wickstrom continues to crush it as she PR’ed and won the meet with a score of 204.30! Lainy VanderPloeg double d down as a great teammate also carding Sadowski’s 500 free — two claps to her. Lily Kate DeVries and Brooke VandenBerg both crushed a new dive whipping out a 104C for the group. Emily Setlock joined the 200 point crowd last night too!  Emily Herman took second in the 100 free followed by Kaitlin Pegman 3rd, Lindsey Wierenga 4th, and Adie Sandberg 5th! As previously mentioned with the support of Lainy-Piper-Sadowski crushed another 500 free last night taking first for the team. Lucy Molenbeek continues to put in the work as well gaining new skills each meet as she touched in 4th place. Janie Mills won the 100 breast with no goggles on by the finish- congrats on swimming so fast the equipment couldn’t stay on! Senior Kaylee Enders took 3rd for the team followed by Katherine Brandt in 7th and Olivia Glisson in 8th.  The final show of the night was dive squad taking on the C 400 Free Relay so we could swim Mollie DeBlecourt in another event. Lily McGowan-Ella VandenBerg and Natalie Wickstrom were lil speedsters in this relay as we finished up the meet. Congrats to all of our athletes who played in the orchestra concert as well last night! The team lost to FHC but will hit the road Saturday to head to the Spring Lake Invite.
Girls Varsity Swimming take 2nd at mid-season invitational
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
What a day for GRC as we swam and dove at the Division 3 Invitational in Holland! Kristin Winkle kicked off the meet by getting second in the 200 free with a 2:00.95 which punched her ticket individually to this year's state meet. Janie Mills kept up the action by taking 4th in the 200 IM which was big points for the Eagles in a stroke event. Grace Carpenter wrapped up the first half of the meet by taking first in the 50 free with a 25.27. She then turned around and swam the 100 fly where she took 3rd followed by Katelyn VanderHeide who took 8th with a 1:10.19. The girl's 200 free relays took 1st place with a time of 1:42.06 swum by Winkle-Mills-Enders-Carpenter. Greta Vance took 11th in the 100 back and Kaylee Enders took 4th in the 100 breast to wrap up individual events for the Eagles. We closed out the meet by getting another state cut in the 400 free relay with Carpenter-Mills- VanderHeide- Winkle swimming a 3:48.06 and taking second in the event.  On the other end of the pool, the divers dove an 11 dive meet! Competitive Lily McGowan, Naomi Grix, Ella VandenBerg, and Lainey VanderPloeg. They ended the meet taking 4th-6th-11th-17th. The team ended up taking second over all at the invite meet! The Eagles compete again Tuesday at their first home meet of the season against Northview.
Varsity Eagles tie with Holland Christian and beat Unity Christian
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
What a great day to be an Eagle! Last night GRC took on a tri-meet with Unity Christian and Holland Christian. The 200-medley relay kicked off the night with a win by out-touching HC at the last second. Harkness/Carpenter/Hoekstra/Mills locked in at a 1:57.44 against their 1:57.50. The B relay of Vance/Enders/Harkness/Herman rallied up as well touching in 4th with a 2:07.72. Freshman Juliana Mills took second in the 200 free with a 2:12.86!  GRC kept the train moving with a 1-5-6-7 finish in the 200 IM. Emily Hoekstra pulled ahead in the breaststroke to fight off the Maroons and take a win. A tie for third place happened in the 50 free between a Holland swimmer and Veda Harkness leaving the meet pretty even closing out the first half.  We had a full diving well as 8 of our girls competed last night! Emily Setlock and Natalie Wickstrom took 1st and 2nd place earning two regional points each! Other highlights include Lily McGowan earning one regional point and Emmarie VanOss competing in her first 6 dive meet!  Grace Carpenter took her ticket to state in the 100 fly to kick off individual events while taking second followed by Mills taking third! A big moment for the night was Junior Swimmer Piper Sadowski breaking 6 minutes in her 500 free. She took 3rd in the event and touched the wall at a 5:59.17! The final stretch of the meet was on with the Eagles taking 1st in the 200-free relay. Carpenter/Mills/Hoekstra/Harkness out touched HC one more time taking a win with a 1:44.49  Hoekstra topped off the individual events with another fight for the finish race out touching HC with a 1:10.35 to their 1:10.66 in the 100 breast.  GRC beat Unity Christian and ended the night in a tie against Holland Christian — a huge moment for our program! We see HC again at our midseason meet on October 1. The team heads down to Hamilton Thursday for another day of racing. 
Girls Varsity Swimming vs. Multiple Opponents
1 year ago | Carolyn Groendyk
Eagles Lose: -
Saturday GRC Swim and Dive headed over to Northview for a sprint invite meet! Natalie Wickstrom kicked off the momentum for the team by taking 4th in diving followed by Setlock taking 6th, VandenBerg 9th, and VanderPloeg 13th.  The Eagles took to the pool then starting the meet with a second place finish from the A relay (Harkness/Hoekstra/Carpenter/Mills) in the 200 med relay. The team locked in a state cut as well! Individual events started with the 100 free where Freshman Veda Harkness took 5th and Junior Janie Mills touched in at 7th place. A once a year chance to swim the 100 IM popped up this weekend too. Hoekstra, Mills, Harkness and VanderHeide dove into a strokers dream finishing 3rd, 5th, 12th and 15th respectively. Grace Carpenter snatched a win in the 50 fly by over a half second touching at a 27.66. With 3 events to go GRC was moving around between second and third place which was much higher placing than we expected. After the 50 back and breast we were down by one point. Our B 200 free relay (Mills/Harkness/VanderHeide/Enders) made a big jump moving to 8th place. The A relay of Carpenter/Mills/Harkness/Hoekstra  dove finishing 3rd which secured the team's second place finish.  The team has an off week and will be competing in a tri meet next Tuesday at home! 

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