MARQUETTE — Competing in a dual-meet in Marquette, the Houghton Gremlins swim teams struggled to put up high finishes, but as coach Erik Johnson put it, both teams continued to make great strides as both of the teams grow with each competition.

The boys lost to Marquette, 118-62, and the girls lost, 117-59, but Johnson liked the efforts out of both squads.

“Marquette is always really well coached and that showed again,” he said. “I was proud of our kids for not backing down against a really strong Marquette team.”

Both teams are very young, a fact not lost on their coach.

“On the girls side, we have a lot of first-year swimmers and, unfortunately, swimming isn’t a sport (where) success comes quickly or easily,” he said. “We have some good leadership and some really excited younger kids who are helping shape our program.”

Junior Elli Wagner posted a qualifying time finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 30.71 seconds, just over three seconds behind Marquette freshman Grace Sobczak.

In the 100-yard backstroke, senior Eva Anderson placed third with a time of 1:16.81, which also was good enough to qualify, giving Johnson a lot to be excited about.

“We got a few more qualifying times for the girls from Elli in the 50 free and Eva in the 100 back, so that was a step in the right direction,” he said. “We also had a lot of season-best times, so it was promising to see some of the things we worked on getting applied and then getting the positive result.”

Junior Elise Erva made the finals in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing fourth with a time of 1:33.82. While the time was not a qualifying one for Erva, Johnson was encouraged by the improvement she continues to make.

“We pick a focus for each meet and Elise Erva best exemplified that today, so that was another bright spot,” he said.

For the boys, the Gremlins continued to get strong efforts from their divers, junior Quinn Aho and sophomore Chase Crisman. The duo finished first and second off the 1-meter board. Aho finished with a score of 165.85 while Crisman finished with 145.05.

“On the boys side we had a solid performance from our divers,” Johnson said.

In the 500-yard freestyle, two more Gremlins dueled for the top spot as juniors Archer Olson (5:42.54) and Davin Evans (5:42.75) finished within .21 seconds of each other. Both swimmers qualified, along with classmate Ty Haataja, who finished fourth.

“We also had a great race between Archer and Davin in the 500 free,” said Johnson. “I was happy to see them push each other in a race and not just at practice.”

Two Gremlins earned qualifying times in the 200-yard freestyle. Haataja took second with a time of 2:15.77 and junior Saar Bar-Ziv took fourth with a time of 2:24.84.

Johnson was proud of the effort put forth by Bar-Ziv.

“Saar hit the qualifying time in the 200 free, so we were all pretty excited for him in that race,” he said. “Ty had a solid meet dropping a lot of time in both the 200 free and 500 free.”

Johnson was also pleased with the progress junior Conner Holombo made over the course of the meet.

“Conner also had some solid swims, just missing the 100 fly cut by .01 seconds and making both the 100 back and 50 free cut,” he said.

This is not the last time the Gremlins will see the Redmen before the U.P. Finals. Johnson is eager to see his team continue to grow and challenge themselves to close the gap that currently exists between the two schools. Before that, the Gremlins head out to face Sault Ste. Marie in a three-school meet on Saturday.

“All in all, we have improved a lot since we first swam Marquette at the end of January,” he said. “We look forward to seeing what we can do against them and the Soo in the tri-meet Saturday.”