The first meet of the season for the West Bloomfield girls swim and dive team couldn’t have kicked off any better. The girls competed in a double dual meet against Novi and Livonia Stevenson. West Bloomfield kept it close against Novi, falling 102-84, but came away with a 98-87 victory over Livonia Stevenson. Opening the meet, West Bloomfield won the 200 Medley Relay with Adriana Nunez, Alexis Conkey, Piper Smith, and Zoe Stander in a time of 1:55.90. The girls finished six seconds ahead of the second-place team and just missed the state cut by less than a second. Keira Pratt took second in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 2:06.56. Freshman Alexis Conkey took second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:16.40, earning her first state cut of the season. Freshman Zoe Stander won the 50 Freestyle with a time of 25.31, followed by Piper Smith in third at 26.49 and Jessica Conkey in fourth at 26.68. Captain and senior Lucy Haramala took second in diving with a score of 186.90. Miriam William finished sixth with 126.80 points, while freshman Mia Gidcumb placed eighth with 105 points. Piper Smith and Adriana Nunez took first and second, respectively, in the 100 Butterfly. Piper finished in 1:04.58, while Adriana posted a new personal best of 1:04.72. Zoe Stander captured first place in the 100 Freestyle, beating the field by half a pool length. Her time of 54.86 earned her a state cut. Alyssa Mientkiewicz posted a season-best time in the 500 Freestyle with a 6:29.54, while Amelia Roth dropped two minutes from her previous best, finishing in 7:48.09. West Bloomfield won the 200 Freestyle Relay with another state-cut time of 1:43.36. The relay team included Zoe Stander, Piper Smith, Keira Pratt, and Alexis Conkey. The B relay of Jessica Conkey, Adriana Nunez, Alyssa Mientkiewicz, and Kara Zoladz finished fourth in 1:56.18. Adriana Nunez took fourth in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:09.85. Alexis Conkey won the 100 Breaststroke in 1:07.31, earning her second state cut of the meet. Finishing out the meet, West Bloomfield’s A relay took third in the 400 Freestyle Relay with a time of 4:22.32. The relay included captain and senior Keira Pratt, Alyssa Mientkiewicz, Ash Thaler, and senior captain Ellison Mack. A first team win of the season, three individual state cuts, one relay state cut, and a plethora of new personal best and season best times. It was an outstanding way to open the season! We couldn’t be more proud of this great group of girls. Keep up the great work, ladies, and let’s keep this momentum going! Coach Ronson Webster