Shooting for No. 5: Bemidji girls swim/dive team looks for fifth straight section title

BEMIDJI - It’s on their heads: No. 5, as in five straight Section 8A championships for the Bemidji High School girls swimming and diving team.
The Lumberjacks have put “#5” on their swim caps this season as a reminder of their annual goal, and of the opportunity they have to do something special.
“It’s a bold statement but that’s our goal every year,” said head coach Woody Leindecker. “To win it or be in it, we shoot for it every year.”
Leindecker said his team this year will be “huge underdogs” on paper, but after four-straight section titles no team in Section 8A will be treating them as such.
The No. 5 on their caps isn’t only a reminder for the Lumberjacks, but to the rest of Section 8A to say they are still the champions until somebody steps up and beats them come section weekend.
“We have an X on our back absolutely,” Leindecker said. “We’ve had it for a couple years.”
The Lumberjacks have four state qualifiers returning this fall.
Libby McRae, Morgan Williams, Kenzie Ritchie and Paige Anderson all played pivotal roles in Bemidji winning a fourth-straight section and they’ll be back looking for another title.
“We’re covered in probably all of our events,” Leindecker said. “We have a dozen freshmen, but a lot have been around for awhile because they came up seventh and eighth grade. We still have a young team, but in this run of four (section titles) we’ve had a young team every year.”
Much like those freshmen who’ve been around for years, McRae has been around since she was in eighth grade.
“It would be really cool to be a part of all five,” said McRae, who is now a senior captain. “I think I’m the only who would be a part of all five.”
Last season McRae swam in the 200 Individual Medley and the 500-yard freestyle.
McRae finished 12th overall in the 200 IM and 13th in the 500 freestyle at the state championship meet a year ago.
“I want to place top eight in both of my events this year,” McRae said. “The major goal though is winning another section title.”
The Lumberjacks will hit the pool for the first time on Friday, Aug. 28, at the Willmar Invitational.
Leindecker isn’t sure how the team will look going into the meet, but he hopes after the invite he’ll start to see where the pieces need to go in order to make another run at the state meet.
“We just need times,” he said. “Once we have the data from Willmar, that third week of practice we really have a good idea what’s going on. Right now it’s wait and see.”