Senior Petra Kaad competes at a meet in Marquette on Jan. 18. Kaad won the 100 freestyle in Thursday’s meet against Houghton. (Ron Deuter photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Two weeks remain until the U.P. swim finals, and the Kingsford Flivvers continue to drop time and achieve personal bests.

Welcoming Houghton to the Northern Lights YMCA Dickinson Center pool Thursday, Kingsford’s girls posted a 114-56 victory, while the Gremlin boys earned a 91-74 decision.

“The team was a little tired after Tuesday’s meet, but we still had a really good meet with some incredible performances and some new qualifications,” Flivvers head coach Jim Lindstrom said. “The Houghton girls’ team is very young and showed a lot of improvement from the last time we swam them. Coach Johnson does a great job with his team.”

Senior Sierra Scott won two races, taking the 200 IM with a new season best in 2:34.31. She also won the 100 fly in 1:09.98, another season best.

Freshman Allison Deuter also had two individual wins for the Flivvers. She won the 50 free race by nearly three seconds, touching the pad at 26.53 for a new personal best. Deuter’s day also included a win in the 500 freestyle. She posted a season best for the Flivvers in that win with the first sub six-minute time for the girls team this season at 5:59.80, nearly a full 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Senior team captain Petra Kaad had the best meet of her four-year career, according to Lindstrom, dropping three seconds and winning the 100 free in 1:03.06. She was second to Deuter in the 50 with a 29.19. Iron Mountain junior Elena Nelson added another new U.P. time for the Flivvers in the 200 free with her second place 2:35.06 swim. Freshman teammate Aubree Peterson won that race in 2:25.92, and the Flivvers went 1-2-3 with freshman Gianna Novara in third.

Kailey Matuszewski, a late arrival to the team, qualified for the U.P. Finals in the 50 free with a time of 29.88.

Junior Marley Dixon clocked a personal best of 1:17.60 to win the 100 backstroke, and sophomore Ella McLean was the 100 breaststroke winner in 1:19.99

The Kingsford boys were outnumbered by Houghton, but that didn’t stop them from winning five events.

Iron Mountain senior Joey Lundholm had two of those, the 200 IM (2:15.79) in which he holds the fastest U.P. time, and he set a season best in the 100 free at 53.70.

Iron Mountain freshman Bryce Johnson had a narrow .54 second win in the 100 fly with a time of 1:06.22 and was second in the 100 back (1:04.26) in another close race, just under a half-second behind Houghton senior Beau Haataja.

Sophomore Thomas Gibbons swam to victory in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.93, and the boys 200 medley relay of Johnson, Gibbons, Lundholm and junior Quinten Smith came in first with a 1:56.44.

“The boys team really gave them a run winning five events,” Lindstrom said. “We did have some of the boys doing some different things to try to get some more qualifications and we did from Justin Larson in the 50 free, and David Arcand in the 200 IM. Houghton has five or six more boys than we do, and it really affects what we can do.”

The Flivvers have their final home meet of the season Tuesday at the NLYMCA Dickinson Center pool and will honor their seniors.