The Duxbury girl swimmers had to put in their best effort in holding off a strong Norwell team last Thursday afternoon at the Percy Walker Pool. Norwell started racking up points early in the meet with first-place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle, forcing Duxbury to re-focus.

Senior co-captain Ellie Johnson led the way by touching first in the 200-yard individual medley, followed by teammates junior Michaela Morris and senior co-captain Aly Wolff in third and fifth places, respectively.

As usual, the Lady Dragons dominated in the 50-yard freestyle with senior co-captain Shelby Rader taking first in a blazing 25.9 seconds and freshman Syardney Rangulong taking second with a State-qualifying time of 27.12. Sophomore McKenzie Bright rounded out the scoring with a fourth-place time of 28.07.

The one-meter diving had the girls competing against high-scoring Norwell divers. Junior Kelsey Golden came in second with a score of 206.475, junior Avery Pisani came in third with a score of 191.4, and senior Michelle Puopolo finished the event with a fifth- place score of 124.5.

Junior Katie Eagan owned the 100-yard butterfly, finishing first with a 103.23. Junior Miranda Van Dingstee and Morris contributed points with fourth and fifth-places finishes, respectively.

The 100-yard freestyle proved to be a tough race with the Lady Dragons swimming against a capable Norwell line-up. Sophomore Mary O’Sullivan was out-touched, resulting in a second-place. Juniors Hannah Hutchinson and Emily Nichols closed the race with fifth and sixth place finishes.

Duxbury added critical points in the most physically tiring event: the 500-yard freestyle, which was represented entirely by juniors. Jess Goldberg took first with a 5:52.02; Elizabeth Buckley came in second with a 6:09.93; followed by Jill Coughlan finishing fourth with a 6:46.18.

The 200-yard freestyle relay was quickly won by Duxbury swimmers Rangulong, Van Dingstee, Bright and Hutchinson. Duxbury points for second and fourth places helped widen Duxbury’s lead in the overall score.

Always dominating the 100-yard backstroke, Rader cruised in with a breezy 1:03.06. This race was sewn up nicely with third and fifth-place finishes by O’Sullivan and sophomore Caroline Robinson.

Feeling comfortable with the lead, Duxbury swam a beautiful and evenly-placed 100-yard breaststroke with first taken by Johnson, Nichols in second and freshman Carolyn Johnson in fifth.

Closing out the meet was the 400-yard freestyle relay. Duxbury came in first again with a team of veterans in Goldberg, Rader, Eagan and Johnson. Second and fifth-place finishes ensured another overall win for the Lady Dragons.

As the season begins to wind down, the Lady Dragons will face Cohasset and Scituate next week.