By John George
The smiles on the face of Perham head coach Sheri Ressler say it all. The girls on her Yellowjacket swim team are improving week-to-week and doing things previous teams have never done.
Yet, Ressler insists, "This is just the beginning."
Last weekend, Perham finished third at the six-team Fosston-Bagley Invite. Thief River Falls won the meet with 359 points. Detroit Lakes was second with 288, followed by Perham with 245. And that was with a less than ideal performance by the Jackets.
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"Our times weren't great," Ressler admitted. "But we still competed very well. We were right there in a number of races."
Ressler went on to say that she was very encouraged about her team's finish despite a sub-par day.
"You're not going to be at your best at every meet," Ressler said. "I thought it was awesome we were so close. We didn't have our best meet and still earned a plaque."
Ressler did some checking and believed this was the first plaque or team trophy the Perham varsity girls swim team has earned.
The Jackets best finish came in the meet's last event. The 400 free relay team of Sara Formanek, Abby Kratzke, Kaila Formanek and Danielle Lehman took first place with a time of 4:12.91.
That wasn't the only highlight for Kratzke, who, for the fourth straight meet, lowered her school record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:08.11.
Perham's best individual performance was turned in by Erika Conlin, who finished second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:13.14. Conlin also had a fourth place finish in the 200 free.
Senior Jeanna Kratzke had a pair of third place swim's in the 100 free and the 100 breaststroke, where she finished just ahead of her younger cousin, Kelsey, who was fourth. In the 100 free, Jeanna Kratzke finished a fraction of a second ahead of teammate Sara Formanek who was fourth.
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Formanek also had a seventh place finish in the 50 free with a time of 28.58, which was just behind younger sister Kaila, who finished fourth in the event with a time of 27.81.
Richter had a third place finish in the 200 I.M. and a seventh place finish in the 100 butterfly. Richter leads the Jackets with four Section qualifying times. She has qualified in the 200 I.M., the 50 free, the 100 butterfly and the 500 free.
Jeanna Kratzke has three Section qualifying events under her belt (100 free, 500 free and the 100 breaststroke) as does Kaila Formanek (50 free, 100 butterfly, 100 free).
"We have such a great young team," Ressler said. Ressler's daughter, Jessica, and Jeanna Kratzke are the team's only seniors and they have just five juniors. "We are just starting to see what they can do. This is just the beginning. We're all so excited to see where we can go from here."
Perham has a big meet tonight (Oct. 5) as they head west for a dual with Class AA Moorhead. The Jackets aren't at all intimidated by heading into the larger school's pool.
"We looked at times and we are right there with them."
