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Majettes have realistic expectations going into state swimming and diving meet

Two years removed from the program’s 24th state championship in 2014, the Minot High School girls swimming and diving team will have to go through the defending state champions in Bismarck Century to reach a quarter of a century of state dominance.

While winning a state title is always the ultimate goal, MHS coach Emily Weeks realizes that Century are the heavy favorites to win back-to-back state championships.

“Anything can happen at a state meet,” Weeks said. “But you also have to be realistic with the kids and realistic with yourself. (Century) has great coaches and a great club program that feeds their high school program. They are very strong. They have a lot of depth and a lot of talent.”

The Majettes enter the state meet on Friday and Saturday at the Bismarck Aquatics Center having placed second behind Century, 550 to 316, at the Western Dakota Association Championships last weekend in Mandan.

Century has won every team competition this season that they have sent a full squad to. Minot, on the other hand, has won six team competitions and placed second behind Century four times.

So, the state meet could easily turn into a fight for second place. Weeks mentioned Fargo Davies, West Fargo, Mandan and Fargo Sheyenne as Minot’s biggest competitors.

“The places between second and fifth are really where a lot of those teams are going to be gunning for,” Weeks said. “With the number of (girls) we are bring to state, I’m really impressed with where we are sitting with our psych sheet so far, but we just got to hope for the best this weekend.”

The Majettes strengths this season has been their youth.

“Our underclassmen are definitely one of our strong assets to our team,” Weeks said. “We have a big sophomore class that’s been exceptionally helpful. Our three girls on the All-Conference team are all sophomores.”

Those award winners included swimmers Rylie Webb and Hannah Zaderaka, along with driver Addisyn Widdel. And Widdel also picked up the team’s only All-State recognition so far at the WDA meet.

The diving program with Widdel, who has won nine 1-meter diving competitions this season including the event at the WDA championship, has been a pleasant surprise for Minot this season.

Senior Brekkyn Sundahl, sophomore Olivia Weisberg and sophomore Olivia Schoffstall also qualified for Minot to take on the diving board at the state meet.

“A couple of gymnasts started diving this year and they really sparked our diving program,” Weeks said.

Within the lanes of the pool, Webb is seeded first in the 500-meter freestyle and second in the 200-meter individual medley for the state meet. Zaderaka is seeded in the top three for the 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle.

The Majettes 200-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle relay teams are also poised for strong times with the aid of Webb and Zaderaka.

Other notably MHS swimmers that will look to have an impact this weekend will be freshman Brooklyn Filler in 100-meter butterfly, freshman Iris Jessen in the 100-yard backstroke and senior Tatiana Walker-Rozo in the 500-yard freestyle.

After a draining season, the Majettes are prepared to give everything they have for the preliminaries on Friday so they can reach the finals on Saturday.

“We started resting a little bit at the end of last week and then we rest all week this week, so hopefully they will be ready to race on Friday,” Weeks said. “Friday our goal is to see as many swims on Saturday that we can.”

The preliminaries are scheduled for a little after 3:30 p.m. on Friday with warm-ups beforehand at the Bismarck Aquatics Center. The finals on Saturday are scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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