Iron Mountain junior Elena Nelson swims to a victory in the 200 freestyle against Gladstone Tuesday afternoon at the Northern Lights YMCA Dickinson Center pool. (Ron Deuter photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN – Kingsford wrapped up its regular season and honored its seniors with a final home swim meet Tuesday at Northern Lights YMCA Dickinson Center, sweeping Gladstone.

The Flivvers’ girls won 117-45, and the boys earned a 90-61 victory.

“It was nice to honor our 11 departing seniors,” Flivvers head coach Jim Lindstrom said. “They are all great kids who will be missed.”

With the win Kingsford’s girls team finished the season with an 11-1 meet record, earning a split with defending U.P. Champion Marquette for best record.

“The girls put up a stellar record,” Lindstrom said. “They grew and matured into a solid team over the season, and they are peaking at the right time.”

Kingsford’s boys finished with a meet record of 7-4.

“I am very proud of those boys,” Lindstrom said. “To compete as hard as they did, knowing that against the better teams they were outnumbered, there was just no quit in them. They were an inspiration to me and the rest of the coaching staff.”

The Flivvers won all but four events Tuesday against the Braves as they worked to get some lower seed times and a few more qualifications in different strokes.

“That task was accomplished,” Lindstrom noted. “Senior Sierra Scott and freshman Allison Deuter swapped events in the 100 fly and 100 free with some incredible results as both set personal bests by a lot. Senior Alex Nieschulz qualified in the 100 fly and sophomore Ella McLean did a great job in the 200 IM the first time she swam it in high school, finishing second and qualifying.”

Deuter was a double winner Tuesday. She lowered her 50 free time to 26.45 – which currently ranks second fastest in the U.P. She also won the 100 fly with the U.P.’s fastest time of the season at 1:04.82. Deuter, who has qualified for U.P.s in all individual events has Kingsford’s fastest times this season in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 free as well as the 50 and 100 fly and the 100 and 200 IM.

Iron Mountain senior Joey Lundholm was a double winner on the boys’ side, taking the 200 IM (2:15.84) and the 100 free (53.89). While not his best time of the season, Lundholm is the U.P.’s fastest boy in the 200 IM and ranks third in the 100 free.

Other winners for the girls included Iron Mountain junior Elena Nelson in the 200 free with a personal season best of 2:33.92; senior Sierra Scott in the 100 free with a season-best 1:00.86; and freshman Aubree Peterson with a 6:26.79 in the 500 free. Kailey Matuszewski added a qualifying swim with a second in the breaststroke (1:23.41).

Along with Lundholm’s triumphs, the Flivver boys received wins from Nieschultz in the 200 free (2:27.57) for his best of the season, junior Quinten Smith in the 50 free (26.49), and sophomore Thomas Gibbons in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.09).

Iron Mountain freshman Bryce Johnson won the 100 back in 1:02.91. Not only was it his fastest performance of the year to date, but he surpassed Houghton senior Beau Haataja and now holds the fastest U.P. time this season. There is a JV finals meet set for Friday, but other than that, the Flivvers will be working on the preparations for the U.P. finals set for Saturday, Feb. 15 at Marquette.