Kingsford junior Ella McLean leads the 100 breaststroke during Tuesday's meet against Ishpeming at the Northern Lights YMCA Dickinson Center. McLean, the defending U.P. champion in the event, collected another victory Thursday at Marquette. (Ron Deuter photo)

MARQUETTE – The Kingsford varsity swim team turned in a solid performance in a meet against Marquette Thursday afternoon.

The girls outscored Marquette in relay and individual races, but fell 94-88 due to the Sentinels having a dive team that added 13 points to their final tally. Marquette’s boys, who outnumbered Kingsford’s boys, took a 81-68 decision.

“I just can’t say enough about both the girls and boys team performance tonight,” Flivvers head coach Jim Lindstrom said. “They gave it their best shot and came up just a little short. We have a lot to build on with this performance tonight.”

Kingsford added one new U.P. Finals qualification at the meet with senior Marley Dixon earning a spot in the 500 free. She finished third in the race (7:00.77) with Flivver sophomore Aubree Peterson taking the win in 6:16.38.

“We didn’t have a lot of new qualifiers, but we had a lot of massive time drops,” Lindstrom noted. “Some of the kids hit their personal best times it was an exciting meet to watch.”

In a rematch of last season’s U.P. final, sophomore Allison Deuter again edged Marquette’s Kaytlin Roell in the 50 free. Deuter clocked 26.03 to Roell’s 26.29. The pair also went head to head in the 100 fly, with Roell just slightly quicker with 1:07.04 to Deuter’s 1:07.57. Deuter later posted an impressive 24.76 split as the anchor in the 200 free relay, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Marquette in the race. The Sentinels took first with 1:53.88 to Kingsford’s 1:54.10.

Thursday’s other individual winners for Kingsford included Iron Mountain sophomore Bryce Johnson owning the 100 fly (1:02.39) and 100 back (1:01.53); junior Thomas Gibbons who was way faster than the field in the boys 200 IM (2:23.99) and 100 breaststroke (1:08.88); junior Kailey Matuszewski in the 200 IM (2:41.18); senior Quinten Smith in the boys 50 free (24.62); and junior Ella McLean with a comfortable five-second margin for another win in the 100 breaststroke (1:20.09).

Relay wins came from the girls (Matuszewski, McLean, Deuter, Peterson) and boys (Johnson, Gibbons, senior Sam Lamirand, Smith) in the 200 medley.

The Flivvers are idle until after winter break, heading to Westwood for a meet on Tuesday, Jan. 6.