The Bedford Kicking Mules finished strong after a weekend of championship swimming at the SEC Red meet. The Mules ended with almost 100% best times after putting in the time and effort throughout this season to achieve their goals.

The Mules started Saturday’s finals with a 5th place finish in the 200 Medley Relay of Lauren Sullivan (11), Allison Steffin (10), Maureen Lingle (10) and Hannah Asselin (12). The girls finished with a time of 1:51.84, almost 3 seconds faster than their time in prelims, and 5 seconds under the state cut. Sullivan then threw down the highest finish of the day, winning the 50 freestyle in a time of 24.10. This was a best time, and is over a second under the state cut. She led the field from the start, and finished with an obvious win. Sullivan followed that up with a 5th place finish in the 100 freestyle with a best time of 52.45, almost 3 seconds under the state cut time.

The Mules then had their highest relay finish of the day in the 200 Freestyle Relay, finishing 3rd with a best time of 1:40.21. The relay team consisted of Asselin, Lauren Metter (12), Lingle and Sullivan. Lingle finished 10th in the 100 backstroke, while teammate Meegan Smith (11) finished 14th. Steffin finished the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:10.52 and was 6th overall. Senior Emily Altweis finished 11th with a best time of 1:14.28.

The Mules finished the day with a 5th place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Metter, Alyse Geiger (12), Kayla Binder (10) and Steffin touched with a time of 3:52.40. Senior Alyse Geiger was awarded the Spirit Award. The Mules will finish out the season as a team at the SMISL Championships at Milan High School on November 14th.

The Division 2 State meet is the following weekend at Oakland University, and Bedford will be represented in 5 individual events and 3 relays.