![Throwing the ball, sophomore shortstop and third baseman Hudson Cuevas completes a play to first base at the scrimmage against Round Rock on Feb. 4. Installation of new turf on the fields has relocatedthe team to practicing on the grass fields and at a batting cage center off of Lakeline called D-Bat. “Our players have attacked this challenge,” Head Coach Ben Huffman said. “We’re just having to shift locations from a day to day basis. [But], the boys come out and wherever and whatever we’re doing they just try to get better every day.” Photo by Alyssa Fox](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hudson-1200x800.jpg)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Coming out of the pool, Paige Blom, sophomore, saw her mom screaming from the stands and coaches and teammates jumping up and down cheering.
She had just broken the Marquette High School girls 100-yard butterfly record.
“It took a second for the realization to settle in for sure,” Blom said. “I didn’t believe I had beat the record at first. I looked like 50 times back and forth just to make sure I wasn’t looking at someone else’s score.”
Coming into this year’s varsity girls swim season, Blom’s goal was to try and break the record time of 57.05 seconds.During the COMO Invitational girls swim meet finals in Columbia, Missouri, on Saturday, Jan. 11, Blom broke this with a time of 56.79 seconds, 0.26 seconds faster than the previous record.
Prior to the start of the high school season, Blom swam a 57.03 for the same race during a club meet, which she said pushed her to drop that time during the high school season and break the record.
She said the feeling was amazing.
Blom said she’s been swimming since she was a kid, beginning with summer leagues and further advancing into club swim. She swims for Parkway Swim Club outside of her school season.
Her favorite aspects of swimming, Blom said, is it requires full body activation when moving through the water and that it is an individual sport.
“You never have to worry about what other people are doing,” Blom said. “It’s all focused on you.”
Throughout her progression in the sport, Blom said Dani Hume, sophomore, has been extremely influential in motivating Blom to continuously push harder.
“There’s always been a little rivalry competition between us because we’ve swam together for so long,” Hume said. “But it’s nice because she’s a flyer and I’m a backstroker so we both have our own things, but when we hit freestyle, we will race and push each other to be faster.”
Hume said she knew Blom would break the record at some point during her high school career, but performing the feat as a sophomore came as a surprise.
“It is a great thing though, and I’m sure she will break a lot more in the future,” Hume said. “I’m very proud of her and I’m thankful I get to swim with Paige. She’s a great friend.”
Joe Schoedel, head swim coach, said Blom originally broke the record during the preliminary round of the swim meet, racing a time of 56.87 seconds. This score advanced her to the finals, where Blom then broke her own newly-set record by getting the time of 56.79, also landing her in first place in the race.
Schoedel said he knew Blom was capable of breaking the record but decided to never discuss it with her to not put any extra pressure on her.
“It was really just a matter of time,” Schoedel said. “Whether she did it in COMO or at State, I had a good feeling that it would fall at some point this season.”
Schoedel described Blom as a humble and incredibly hard working athlete.
“The butterfly is an incredibly difficult stroke to train, and it’s very physically demanding, but I never have to encourage her to practice the stroke,” Schoedel said. “She doesn’t slack off at all.”
Shoedel said he hopes Blom will continue to reach her goals.
“It’s very easy to say that she could have a couple more records on her board, and she’ll always be competitive for a potential State championship along the line,” Schoedel said.
This story was originally published on Marquette Messenger on February 20, 2025.
