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Marshalltown swimmers in position to make postseason gains

Bobcat girls 6th in CIML Iowa Conference

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown High School freshman Riley Robinson swims the 100-yard breaststroke during Thursday’s CIML Iowa Conference meet at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA.

The idea of swimming at the site of the Iowa Girls State Swimming Championships lost some of its luster when the Bobcats were forced to break from their routine and move practices to the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA because of needed repairs at the Marshalltown High School pool.

But seeing the potential for time drops despite the hassle of having to host the CIML Iowa Conference meet gave the MHS swimmers something to focus on for the next week’s worth of training and tapering.

The Marshalltown girls’ swim squad got to race its divisional foes on Thursday night in the Linda Bloom Natatorium, and even though the head-to-head results mirrored the regular season, some time drops made for moments of joy despite the Bobcats’ last-place finish.

MHS came in sixth out of as many teams with 182 points, 47 of which came from the Bobcats’ diving trio on Tuesday night. Fifth-ranked Waukee ran away with the team title, lapping up 616 points to hold off No. 11 West Des Moines Valley (512), Fort Dodge (349), Mason City (318), Southeast Polk (200) and host Marshalltown.

Still, the Bobcats’ times were right about where head coach Angie Nelson hoped they would be a week ahead of the regional swim meet, which for Marshalltown will be Nov. 2 at Southeast Polk.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown’s Hannah Case competes in the 100-yard butterfly during Thursday’s CIML Iowa Conference girls’ swimming meet at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA.

“We’ve got some good swims happening and I’m really excited about going into next week,” said Nelson. “I think the things that happened tonight, there’s some real positives that we can all take away, some good learning lessons from everything. But I think every girl had at least one race they should feel amazing about, a race they should feel proud of.

“Hosting just brings a whole other level of crazy, and not having our own pool we’re in this really interesting state of weird that I’m not used to. It’s been chaotic since we moved over here [to the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA], even though the girls are still getting the same amount of work in. There’s just a lot of extra distraction.”

Just more than two weeks away from the state meet on Nov. 9, the Bobcats got a glimpse at some of the top teams and swimmers in the state with the CIML Iowa Conference championships. Even though it placed third, Fort Dodge won four individual races and one relay while meet winner Waukee claimed three individual events and two relays. Valley’s Alison Wyatt won the 50-yard freestyle, and Marshalltown’s Hannah Taylor took the top spot in Tuesday’s diving competition.

“I think having the conference meet here makes them a little bit more excited and a little bit more hungry,” Nelson said of her squad. “I think it adds a little extra hype.”

Marshalltown only made its way onto the podium in one swimming event on Thursday, as the Bobcats’ quartet of Cori Jorgenson, CeCe Waltermire, Taylor Jones and Klaudia Hernandez came away with eighth place in the 200 freestyle relay in a combined time of 1 minute, 50.18 seconds. Marshalltown’s time was its fastest by a bit more than 2 seconds, which is an acceptible goal for time cuts for this stage of the season according to Nelson.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“This is a really hard [meet] because you just want to get the girls back to their best, and then next week we start chopping big stuff off those [times],” Nelson said. “Our girls generally will taper very well. They lift hard so their taper’s going to be great. I’d like to see them perform tonight at their best so that way next week when we taper, it’s awesome.”

Some of the Bobcats jumped the gun on that, figuratively. MHS freshman Samantha Propp lopped a total of about 10 seconds off her individual swims in the 500 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, highlighted by an 8-second shift in her personal-best clocking in the 500 free. She took 16th place for MHS in that race, touching the wall in 6:39.97, while sophomore teammate Erin Stanley was 13th in 6:18.49.

Propp led the Bobcats in the 100 backstroke by placing 15th in 1:13.70. Senior Emma Pfantz added points for 21st place, taking off nearly 2 seconds in her time of 1:19.06. Freshman Maeve Janssen cut more than 5 seconds off her backstroke as well, placing 25th and narrowly missing out on scoring team points.

The Bobcats’ 400 freestyle relay quartet of Stanley, Jones, Hernandez and Jorgenson placed ninth in 4:15.05, while the 200 medley relay team of Stanley, Waltermire, Hannah Case and Janssen claimed 13th in 2:15.99.

Twelfth place was the Bobcats’ best individual performance in the conference meet, achieved on this night by Hernandez in the 100 breaststroke. She timed in at 1:18.59, about a half-second behind her seed time.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

The Bobcats also got a trio of 13th-place finishes. Jorgenson earned that spot in the 50 freestyle (27.53), Hernandez finished in 1:10.23 in the 100 butterfly for 13th, and Stanley scored the same placing in the 500 free.

Stanley also took 17th in the 200 freestyle (2:21.75), while Janssen scored one team point for her 24th-place finish in 2:38.91 — 4 seconds faster than her seed time. Ciera Randall just missed out on scoring for the Bobcats with her time of 2:42.03, which was nearly 4 seconds faster than her previous best.

The 50 freestyle was the most lucrative event for MHS, led by Jorgenson in 13th. Waltermire and Jones tied for 19th place, with all three Bobcats finishing in the vicinity of their seed times.

Hannah Case swam a 2-second season best in taking 20th in the 200 individual medley (2:53.21).

“I think you take a look at the muscle mass and the build we’ve got going and I know we can get a little bit more [time drops],” Nelson said. “I think as far as racing goes, we’ve had a lot of good improvement over the last three weeks. They look better while they’re racing and they’re actually racing other kids. Conference is a great opportunity to race a girl right next to you and race a girl right next to you on the other side who are at your time, and the girls should perform better under those circumstances.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“I’m not surprised at all that we’re at the bottom of the standings today because that’s where we were at all season and we just don’t have a whole lot of depth, but we’ve got a lot of girls that swim with heart. The girls who are in it to win it, the girls who have been training hard, they’re going to have a lot of success next week and I’m really excited to watch them cut time and be excited about what they did.”

Southeast Polk hosts regional diving on Oct. 31 at 5 p.m., and the regional swim meet on Nov. 2 begins at noon.

CIML Iowa Conference Meet

At Marshalltown

Team Standings — 1. Waukee 616, 2. West Des Moines Valley 512, 3. Fort Dodge 349, 4. Mason City 318, 5. Southeast Polk 200, 6. Marshalltown 182.

EVENT RESULTS

(Champion plus MHS placewinners)

DIVING — 1. Hannah Taylor, MHS, 396.35; 3. Mia Rasmusson, MHS, 356.85; 8. Kaisa Stanley, MHS, 320.10.

200 MEDLEY RELAY — 1. Waukee (Schwickerath, Habgood, Hamling, Wigham) 1:53.77; 13. MHS (Stanley, Waltermire, Case, Janssen) 2:15.99.

200 FREESTYLE — 1. Eileen Fierke, FD, 1:59.53; 17. Erin Stanley, MHS, 2:21.75; 24. Maeve Janssen, MHS, 2:38.91.

200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY — 1. Grace Hartley, FD, 2:16.18; 20. Hannah Case, MHS, 2:53.21.

50 FREESTYLE — 1. Alison Wyatt, VAL, 25.63; 13. Cori Jorgenson, MHS, 27.53; 19. (tie) CeCe Waltermire, MHS, 28.72; Taylor Jones, MHS, 28.72.

100 BUTTERFLY — 1. Jessi Wigham, WAU, 1:01.27; 13. Klaudia Hernandez, MHS, 1:10.23; 21. Hannah Case, MHS, 1:22.36.

100 FREESTYLE — 1. Madigan Peimann, FD, 55.08; 17. Cori Jorgenson, MHS, 1:01.83; 23. Taylor Jones, MHS, 1:05.03.

500 FREESTYLE — 1. Eileen Fierke, FD, 5:25.29; 13. Erin Stanley, MHS, 6:18.49; 16. Samantha Propp, MHS, 6:39.97.

200 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1. Waukee (Kell, Wigham, Hueser, Hamling) 1:43.43; 8. MHS (Jorgenson, Waltermire, Jones, Hernandez) 1:50.18.

100 BACKSTROKE — 1. Jessi Wigham, WAU, 59.74; 15. Samantha Propp, MHS, 1:13.70; 21. Emma Pfantz, MHS, 1:19.06.

100 BREASTSTROKE — 1. Anna Hamling, WAU, 1:10.84; 12. Klaudia Hernandez, MHS, 1:18.59; 17. CeCe Waltermire, MHS, 1:21.61.

400 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1. FD (Fierke, Hartley, Fierke, Peimann) 3:45.88; 9. MHS (Stanley, Jones, Hernandez, Jorgenson) 4:15.05.

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