By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

LAPLACE — The Stingrays had little trouble getting themselves upright last week in River Parishes Swim League play, narrowly winning a shocker to Houma by the slimmest of margins on Monday and taking another over Ellington on Thursday.

The Riverlands squad opened up with an away match-up in Houma where the Stingrays traded the lead throughout the meet. After falling behind a bit coming into the relays, Riverlands took both the medley and the free by scores of 42-28 to pull back ahead. It almost didn’t happen as coming down to the final races, Houma had a slight advantage. But the girls 11 & 12 relay team of Courtney Frederick, Julie Melancon, Kelsey Richoux and Kayleigh Smith gave the Stingrays the go-ahead points and they were able to hold on for the win.

Against Ellington on Thursday, Riverlands again traveled, where they jumped out on top early on, and recorded more than 40 first places to take a 491-62 victory. Highlights of that meet include Gavin St. Pierre, Grace Richoux, Jeffery Cupit, Merryn Guidry and Kyle and Ashley Wilking all placing in the top heats of multiple individual events.

&#8220Our team is holding their own in these meets,” said Stingrays coach Carla Lambert. &#8220They’re improving with every practice and looking better with every meet. We just have to keep working to keep it at that level.”

The Stingrays will have a chance to swim in front of their home crowd twice this week with home meets against Hill Heights early in the week and Belle Terre on Thursday. Races are set to begin at 6:30 p.m.