At Saturday’s Bobcat Invitational Meet, Marshalltown girls’ swimming and diving times were shaved down by the competition.
Strong performances from MHS, including an individual gold medal from Adele Beeck, propelled the Bobcats to second place out of seven teams in the MHS pool.
MHS finished with 221 points, three points ahead of third-place Linn-Mar. Johnston won the team title with 331 points.
“We’re going to win,” MHS coach Angie Nelson said, “The girls performed at their best and came into the event hoping to get a better time. The time-seeded meet was perfect for that because it lets you see what the athletes around you have in store. Now it’s just a matter of choosing whether you want to go for it or not.”
Beeck was the Bobcats’ lone champion on Saturday, winning the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1 minute, 13.64 seconds, beating Linn-Mar’s Layla Breitbach by less than a second.
The win moved MHS to within one point of Linn-Mar in the team standings heading into the finals, and MHS edged out the Lions for third place in the 400 freestyle relay, placing two spots ahead of Linn-Mar in that event.
“She was really good,” Nelson said of Beeck. “1:16 to 1:15 to now 1:13 is amazing. She’s a strong-willed young woman and she ran really well off the start and off the turn. It was a really good race for her. She has the talent, drive and enthusiasm, so it’s always good to push her. I think we’re going to see great things from her.”
She was one of several Bobcats whose times dropped Saturday, with Nelson noting that Libby Meyer’s time in the 200 freestyle relay was faster and that Rachel Case and Morgan Baer both dropped times in the breaststroke.
“I don’t think our backstrokers performed to their full potential today, but when you have a break in the meet, the flow can sometimes be different than a normal meet,” Nelson said.
Leia Hernandez took second in the 50 freestyle by 0.31 seconds behind Johnston’s Faith Flanum. Flanum is the state’s top swimmer in the 500 freestyle but competed in the sprint freestyle event on Saturday.
“Sometimes it’s good to change up the events to change how you look at things,” Nelson said. “We’re going to do that this week and approach the Ames game differently than we did the Indiana game.”
In the diving competition at Saturday’s meet, Kate Hauser placed second overall with 416.65 points in her first 11-event dive of the season.
Grinnell College’s Camryn Russell currently leads the state in 11 diving events and placed fifth at last year’s state meet, winning with a score of 485.70.
Hauser’s 416.65 was a new personal best and came after some less than desirable scores on early dives that Nelson said had her trailing for much of the competition.
“The first tournament is always the worst,” Nelson added, “but she did a really good job and continues to work on those two big twisters on her list of dives that are big money winners. She has a lot of potential and a lot of the things she needs to fix are easy to fix.”
Hauser incorporated a 2 1/2 forward somersault into his routine for the first time on Saturday, and he has also recently started adding a backward approach to his dives in order to gain more confidence for his later dives.
“But maybe next time I’ll start with the internal spin,” Hauser said. “I’m glad I beat my personal best, but I know I can still improve. It was a really great tournament.”
Marshalltown has two more home games scheduled this week, against Ames on Tuesday and Indianola on Thursday.
Bobcat Swim & Dive Invitational
In Marshalltown
Team standings — 1. Johnston 331, 2. Marshalltown 221, 3. Linn-Mar 218, 4. Lewis Central 197, 5. Grinnell 179, 6. Atlantic 54, 7. Ottumwa 36.
Event Results
(Winners and MHS Prize Winners)
Diving — 1st, Kamryn Russell, GRIN, 485.70. 2nd, Kate Hauser, MHS, 416.65.
200 Medley Relay — 1st Lynn-Mar (Breitbach, Carstensen, Ragwani, Luck), 1:58.07; 3rd MHS (Sellen, Beeck, E. Case, R. Case), 2:02.22.
200-meter freestyle — 1st Rio Hammitt, LC, 2:01.89; 5th Maisy Gammart, MHS, 2:12.81; 11th Drea Thelen, MHS, 2:19.19.
200 Individual Medley — 1. Maura Carstensen, LM, 2:20.10; 6. Emma Case, MHS, 2:31.10; 7. Adele Beeck, MHS, 2:31.69.
50 freestyle — 1. Faith Frantum, John, 25.60; 2. Leia Hernandez, MHS, 25.91; 5. Rachel Case, MHS, 27.36; 8. Libby Meyer, MHS, 28.06.
100 butterfly — 1. Josie Smith, GRIN, 1:01.92; 6. E. Case, MHS, 1:08.20; 10. Alex Rasuk, MHS, 1:14.27.
100 Freestyle — 1st Frantum, John, 55.06; 3rd Hernandez, MHS, 57.55; 9th Meyer, MHS, 1:02.77.
500 Freestyle — 1. Kylie Zylstra, GRIN, 5:34.89; 2. Gummert, MHS, 5:48.07.
200 Freestyle Relay — 1st Johnston (Morris, Assard, Lu, Frantum), 1:45.78; 3rd MHS (Hernandez, Meyer, Gammert, R. Case), 1:47.88.
100 backstroke — 1. Sarah Assad, John, 1:04.09; 6. Rasak, MHS, 1:15.01; 7. Thelen, MHS, 1:15.32.
100 Breaststroke — 1st Beeck, MHS, 1:13.64; 7th Rachel Case, MHS, 1:18.17.
400 Freestyle Relay — 1. Grinnell (Zylstra, Sieck, Kenkel, Smith), 3:55.34. 3. MHS (E. Case, Thelen, Gummert, Hernandez), 4:03.42.
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