By Paul Lecker

STEVENS POINT – Marshfield placed fifth in the team points standings with eight top-10 finishes at the 2017 Wisconsin Valley Conference Girls swim meet on Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Marshfield tallied 174 points to outlast Wausau West by 12 points for fifth. The Tigers end up tied for fifth place with West in the overall final WVC standings that combines points from the dual meet schedule and the conference meet.

Stevens Point won the conference title for the second year in a row, racking up 575 points and first place in nine of the 11 races. D.C. Everest was second with 524 points.

D.C. Everest senior Riyah Rudeen was chosen as the conference Swimmer of the Year, and Everest’s Melissa Springer was picked as Coach of the Year.

Freshman Alyssa Franks was fifth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:24.72) and senior Sophie Koehn took fifth in the 100 backstroke (1:05.20) for Marshfield’s best individual finishes.

Franks was also seventh in the 500 freestyle (5:41.92), freshman Kaitlin Alberts was seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:06.45) and 100 backstroke (1:06.36), and freshman Hope Risa took ninth in the 200 IM (2:28.60) and 10th in the 500 (5:52.34) for the Tigers.

Marshfield also had a top-10 finish from the 400 freestyle relay team of Koehn, Erika Roeglin, Risa and Franks, which finished seventh in 4:06.03.