MARQUETTE — With a number of strong performances, the Houghton Gremlins boys swim team finished second at the U.P. Finals over the weekend. The girls also had a strong day, finishing fifth.

On the boys’ side, Davin Evans had a huge weekend, setting a school record while finishing as the runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke. He also won the 200-yard individual medley and was part of the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay teams that finished second as well.

“We have to start with Davin Evans in the pool,” said coach Erik Johnson. “He had an outstanding meet from start to finish. He swam two huge legs on the relays for us, won the 200 individual medley, and broke our school record in the 100 breaststroke (which was) set back in 2012.

“We had set that goal last year, and for him to accomplish it during this shortened season was outstanding.”

Quinn Aho and Chas Crisman got the ball rolling for the Gremlins by finishing third and fourth in the diving event. Johnson felt like that helped set the tone for the rest of the meet.

“On the boys’ side, our divers really kicked us off on Friday night finishing third and fourth,” he said.

Chasing Marquette throughout the meet, the Gremlins had several strong finishes from Archer Olson, who joined Evans on the relay teams, finished third in the 200-yard freestyle and second in the 500-yard freestyle.

Ty Haataja, on top of helping with the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay, also finished third in the 500-yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard butterfly. Conner Holombo added to the relay teams and also finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.

“Archer, Ty and Conner also did a great job in the relays and their individual events,” Johnson said.

Topping Marquette was going to be a tall task, but Johnson was heartened by the effort his team put in.

“We threw everything we had at Marquette but they are just a lot deeper than we are this year,” said Johnson. “Our guys are really fired up to come back next year since we aren’t graduating anyone.”

On the girls’ side, the Gremlins only had four swimmers qualify, so scoring was going to be difficult, but Johnson was ecstatic that his team gave everything they had.

“On the girls’ side, we had four individual qualifiers for the meet, so it was going to take a massive effort to move up,” he said, “but we did a great job and finished fifth. I thought going into the meet that fifth would be a good day for us, and that is exactly what the girls did. They stepped up and swam well.”

Eva Anderson, a senior taking part in her final races, finished fifth in the 500-yard freestyle and helped the 200-yard medley relay team take fifth. She also was a key component of the 200-yard freestyle relay team, which finished third.

“The highlight of the day for me was Eva Anderson in the 500 free,” Johnson said. “Eva is a senior who has been with the program for four years, and for her to finish fifth, and get on the podium, was outstanding.

“She had to drop almost 20 seconds in order to do it, so we are all very proud of her for battling it out. She was side by side with Alyssa Claxton from the Soo the entire race, but dug deep and beat her to the finish by less than half a second.”

Leah Kormazec took third in the 50-yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle. She also chipped in strong efforts on the 200-yard medley and the 200-yard freestyle relay teams as well.

Cassandra Steffensen and Elli Wagner swam the middle legs of the 200-yard medley relay. Claire Filpus and Wagner both had key roles on the 200-yard freestyle relay team. Madelynn Raasio, Kaci Dewar, Chloe Neves and Emma Jenkins combined to get the 400-yard freestyle relay on the podium in sixth.

“The girls worked hard all season and really made the best of what they had,” said Johnson. “Our girls’ 200 free relay finishing third was another great highlight along with our 400 free relay making the podium. We had two goals going into the meet, everyone scores points and every relay gets a medal, so to accomplish both of those with the amount of girls we had was outstanding.”