HOUGHTON — The Houghton High School swim team competed in Westwood on Tuesday.

The girls finished first in the 200-yard medley with a team of Meredith Raasio, Tessa Meyer, Mikayla Sague, Samantha Olson with a combined time of 2:07.09. The team of Irene Ra, Katie Jaszczak, Jiwei Li, and Kate Desrochers finished in 2:21.08.

Fourth place went to Houghton’s Eva Anderson, Li Lincole, Francesca Mercuri, Francesca Lundin with a team time 2:30.84.

“For the girls, Tessa Meyer had another good meet and Katie Jaszczak has continued to be a force for us,” said coach Erik Johnson. “I was really happy for Lalana Laitila for reaching a qualifying time in the 100 free.

“(Today) was also a chance to get some of our younger swimmers a chance to swim new events and I was impressed with Emma Jenkins tackling the 100 back for the first time. She is always bringing positive energy to the team so seeing her teammates cheer her on tonight was great.”

“We are in the middle of a tough haul leading up to taper and we have four meets over the next nine days,” said Johnson. “We are taking it as a one day at a time approach and the results were good for the first of the 4 meets. We came out strong and kids kept surprising me as the meet went on.”

Olson finished first in the 200-yard Freestyle. Anderson finished second with a time of 2:39.67. Desrochers finished third with 2:45.97.

Meyer finished the 100-yard butterfly with a first-place time of 1:10.35.

“On the boys side it’s hard to know where to start because they all did so well tonight,” said Johnson. “Our freshman have really started to find their groove. Ty Haataja qualified in the 500 free.”

Kevin Beaghan, Cameron Jackson, Samuel Fang and Colton Haataja finished first in the 200-yard medley relay with a group time of 1:58.61.

Beaghan also finished first in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:09.2. Jackson brought home first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:08.44.

“I was excited to see that because he broke his arm earlier this year and it was his first race without his cast,” Johnson said. “Not to be outdone, his teammate Conner Holombo qualified in the 100 backstroke by dropping over 4 seconds. It was really awesome to watch the team rally around all the kids (Tuesday). We are constantly talking about lifting each other up and you could really see that on the deck (Tuesday).

“The kids cheering were more excited for their teammates’ accomplishments then they were their own and to me that is what sports is all about.”

“Anyone who says swimming is an individual sport needs to stop by the pool and watch this team because you will clearly see (and more likely hear) it is anything but,” said Johnson.

Both teams will have a tough test when Marquette visits on Thursday.