Splash!
The Oyster River High School girls’ swim and dive team took home second place at the NHIAA Division II State Championships at the Swasey Indoor Pool on Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11. Although the girls were feeling the pressure of states after coming off an undefeated regular season for the second year in a row, they homed in on what they had been training for all season to beat some of the best Division II teams in New Hampshire.
Before the meet, the girls’ coach, Bill Reeves, said he wasn’t expecting the team to win or place as high as they did. “We have no illusions about winning this meet,” Reeves said. “But we could be anywhere from second to sixth. The most important thing for them to remember is to have fun and focus on improving their times.”
Going into the meet, senior swimmer Tessa Brown said she was less focused on the team’s overall placement and more excited to “just compete against really strong teams like Hollis Brookline and Windham,” especially since two of the team’s meets were canceled this season. “We haven’t had the chance to swim against really tough competitors yet, and I think we’re obviously ready for it,” she said before the meet.
However, on top of all her excitement, Brown said she was nervous not only about her main event (the 100 breaststroke) but how her team would perform.
Brown explained that while swimming is a very individual sport—and that she typically focuses on how she can improve her own times—you still have to focus on the team. This is especially important during relays, “because those are worth so many points.”
“I think we have had less team bonding than I would have liked. It just makes us less of a cohesive team, and it sets the tone for the meets,” Brown said. “But we’ve definitely been getting better throughout the season, and I hope the energy is high at states.”
One of Brown’s teammates, Una Bleckman (‘25), emphasized the importance of the team in easing each other’s nerves at a high- stakes meet.
Although the team gained highly skilled freshmen this year, they also lost several fast and experienced seniors. “It’s a lot of people’s first time being at states cause some of them are newer, so it’s a lot to think about and can be a lot of pressure,” Bleckman said.
“But everyone on the team is really good about cheering each other on and being supportive, so I think that’s gonna help,” Bleckman continued.
Diver Megan Zehetner, who placed eighth overall, said one of her main roles during states was to be a “sort of mentor to the girls.” This year, Zehetner is the only diver on a team of six that has dived for the high school team, and decided it was her job, as a veteran, to lead the girls.
“One of my teammates had never made it to states. So, now making it to states this year, I was like, ‘I can be there for you and mentor you up to what I know,” Zehetner said.
With Zehetner’s encouragement, the divers accumulated an impressive 37 points, which put the team in first place going into Sunday’s races. In addition to Zehetner’s placement in the top ten, Greta Parks (‘26) placed first, Lily Rudman (‘26) placed third, and Lucy Fogg (‘26) placed sixth.
Brown said the divers’ strong performance put her, along with some of the other team’s swimmers, at ease going into the second day. “The divers don’t get enough credit,” Brown said. “They put us in the position to get second place, because they got a huge chunk of our points.”
Brown also added that while the swimmers felt secure knowing they had a lot of points going into the meet’s second day, there was also pressure for them to have an equally strong performance to place high overall. Especially considering their seed times predicted a fourth-place outcome.
Swimmer Lotta Bergland (‘25) said the team’s overall placement came down to the relays, which are the last events of the meet. “We really didn’t know if we were gonna get second. The relays are worth a lot of points, and we were really close in points to the third-place team. So, the relays were pretty make or break for us,” she said.
“To get second at states and to just barely beat my PR from like the eighth grade in my main event was just like a good way to finish off the high school season,” said Brown, who placed in all four events she swam. Brown said it was her teammates she would miss most about being on the high school team, especially the underclassmen she made really strong connections with.
For Zehetner, it didn’t hit her that it would be her last time diving for the high school team until she was on the board for her last dive.
“I was standing there going to do my dive for the last time, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is it.” But, Zehetner said she was mainly thinking about how grateful she was to be at states after being injured last year.
“I’ve worked so hard for this. This is my last time diving for high school, and I want to make it count,” Zehetner said. “So, when I found out later that night that I placed, I was so excited. It pretty much made me think how cool it is to be a part of something like this.”
-Abby Owens
Images Courtesy of Maya Grainger (’24)
Mouth of the River 
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