Pioneer vs. Mercy Girls Swim Meet
Photo: Xianping Wu, Pioneer swim team girls cheering before the meet started
On Oct. 21, swimmers from Farmington Hills Mercy High School arrived at Pioneer’s Hill Pool. Mercy families entered the seating area as the meet was just about to start. Before the meet began, head coach Stefanie Kerska gave the Pioneer women’s swim and dive team a speech. Kerska finished her speech with “alright ladies let’s get after this and our hand on the wall first.”
The meet started with Pioneer winning the 200 medley relay. Pioneer’s A medley relay- senior Jodi Hawki, sophomore Jenni Krzeczkowski, senior and captain Jessica Wu, and senior and captain Anna Thomas swam a 1:53.82. Mercy’s A relay- Julia Coffman, Megan Hutter, Sarah Puscas, and Lindsey Case went a 1:57.34.
In the 200 freestyle, Kendall Goit from Mercy took first with a close finish by Katie Capelli from Pioneer taking second. As the 200 IM finished, Mercy took the top two spots, but Thomas came in third.In the 50 freestyle, Mercy took the top two finishes, Krzeczkowski third and Grace Stephan finished fourth.
Pioneer girls were holding their breath through the whole diving period. As the one meter diving came to an end, Senior Grace Murphy from Pioneer came in second with 209.55 points. Mercy’s Alexa Rybicki gets first with a score of 230.6. There was a ten minute break from swimmers to warm back up before the second half of the meet started. When the 100 butterfly finished, Puscas from Mercy came in first. With Wu from Pioneer in second. As the 100 freestyle came around Goit from Mercy edged out Thomas by .3 seconds, Hawki came in third.
Goit came in first with a time of 5:07.87 with Capelli coming in second with a time of 5:10.67. Mercy’s 200 freestyle relay came in first with a time of 1:41.53 and Pioneer came in a close second with a time of 1:42.36.In the 100 backstroke, Mercy’s Mya Loniewski and Coffman came in first and second. Close behind, Pioneer’s Hawki came in third. Going into the 100 breaststroke, Wu came in first. Followed by Case who beat Krzeczkowski by .27 seconds.
As the last event came into full swing, Mercy came in first, third, fourth, seventh and eighth. Pioneer ended in second, fifth and sixth. This meet was the last dual meet of the season for the Pioneers. The meet concluded, Farmington Hills Mercy beat Pioneer High school.
![Pioneers Raffi Avedissian wrestles an opponent from Saline during Pioneers senior night. Avedissian is back wrestling for the Pioneers for his senior season after wrestling on a joint Pioneer-Skyline team last year due to lack of coaching and participation.
“I feel like as a senior, it’s good to have [Pioneer Wrestling] back for my final year,” Avedissian said. “I also feel like there is a bit of a pressure to set a standard for our program. We only have four or five seniors [on the team] this year, most of the kids are underclassmen, but I think the future is looking bright for Pioneer wrestling.”](https://chscommunicator.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/imMDAslaCJR4eKFePgHJVIwrcKNI2dZ7xYKESVfz-475x317.jpg)
