The Marshalltown girls’ swim squad saw time drops from every entrant at Saturday’s regional meet at Southeast Polk High School, but the Bobcats had too much space to erase in hopes of returning home with their tickets punched. MHS was denied a girls state swim meet qualifier for the second time in the last four years in spite of the gains made.

“This is probably, over time, the most improved team I’ve had overall,” Marshalltown head coach Angie Nelson said. “With everything from varsity to junior varsity, this is the most improved overall team we’ve had.

“My girls generally will swim awesome at the regional meet. It’s always fun to watch, it’s always exciting for them. They come out and they come to play and it’s always fun to watch to see how much time they’re going to drop and to see how much they’ve improved.”

As a whole, Marshalltown’s 20 swimming entrants in Saturday’s meet cut approximately 92 seconds combined, highlighted by huge in the longer races. The Bobcats’ 500-yard freestyle trio of Samantha Propp, Ciera Randall and Diana Espinoza cut a collective 34 seconds off their seed times, while the 400-yard freestyle relay took 10 seconds off its season-best time with a clocking of 4 minutes, 4.30 seconds to close the day with a seventh-place finish for Cori Jorgenson, Taylor Jones, Klaudia Hernandez and Erin Stanley.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown senior swimmer Cori Jorgenson cuts through the water on the anchor leg of the 200-yard medley relay to start Saturday’s regional meet at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill. Jorgenson closed the event for teammates Samantha Propp, Taylor Jones and Klaudia Hernandez and helped the Bobcats place fifth in a season-best time of 2 minutes, 6.48 seconds.

“You knew that’s the one you could move the most real estate on,” Nelson said. “That ought to make some of these kids a little hungry for next year.”

Nelson settled for the fact that almost every swimmer shaved some seconds off their previous best each time they hit the water because of the overall growth her generally young roster showed in the final meet of the season. The Bobcats were 20-for-20 overall and 26-for-29 in dropping time when considering each leg of the three relays.

“We had three slower splits today, but everything else we got, so if overall times are counted, this is my first,” Nelson said. “If we’re going to splits, then I’m still chasing that dream. There’s a unicorn out there with my name on it somewhere and maybe someday I’ll get it.”

The Bobcats barely missed out on a perfect day of time drops, but Marshalltown wasn’t real close to being in the running for state meet qualification. The closest the Bobcats got was Jorgenson’s eighth-place finish in the 50 freestyle, as her time of 26.52 was a little more than one second shy of earning an at-large berth at state. The 32nd and final qualifying time was 25.26.

But in the pool, a lot of waves can be made in that second, and that’s where the Bobcats came up short.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“It’s disappointing,” Nelson said of the team’s absence from state swimming competition. “I’m excited to have two divers diving next weekend, but it’s a little disappointing because we do have some girls who, if they could swim taper times in the season, they could be right there [for qualifying] and some of them have put in some serious work.

“We spend all that time finding volunteers and trying to help host [state], the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA does such a great job with having a beautiful facility and having everything ready to go, the staff is phenomenal with the state meet, so we’re just really happy to be any kind of a part of it that we can. It’s just a little disappointing to work as a clerk and be timing and not have some kids swimming.”

The Bobcats’ 200 medley relay team of Propp, Jones, Hernandez and Jorgenson collected the top finish of the day, finding its way onto the podium with a fifth-place finish in a combined time of 2:06.48. That was still more than 7 seconds shy of a state berth.

The 200 freestyle relay squad of Jorgenson, Riley Robinson, Jones and Hernandez came in sixth in 1:49.26, which was less than 4 seconds back of the last qualifying spot but still a 1-second improvement on the team’s previous best. Three of the four splits, Nelson said, counted for lifetime bests.

Jorgenson and Hernandez shared the best individual finish on the day for the Bobcats, as Jorgenson was eighth in the 50 freestyle and Hernandez was eighth in the 100 breaststroke after a time drop of more than 3 seconds.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Propp pushed 3 seconds off her time in the 100 backstroke to place 10th, while Jones’ 1-second improvement in the 50 free was good for 10th place as well.

“You just hope they go away with some feeling of success so they want to train a little bit more in the offseason because that’s really where it’s at,” Nelson said. “It’s about how did you lead into getting ready for your season, how did you prepare to get ready for your season before the season started?”

“I’m excited because I’ve got a group of girls who I think today will be a good little springboard for them to maybe take a couple of weeks and then just jump right back in it. [Not getting to state] is a little disappointing but I’m really happy with where our girls ended today so if this is how we end, I’m good.”

Fourth-ranked Ankeny won the team title with 554 points and victories in nine of the 11 swimming events. Ankeny senior Jasmine Rumley, a Tennessee recruit, won the 50 and 100 freestyle events and anchored two winning relays on her way to being named Athlete of the Year, and Des Moines East head coach Erin Lowe was honored as Coach of the Year.

Marshalltown, with 170 points, finished fifth out of eight teams in the region.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“We’ve got some freshman girls I’m so wildly proud of,” Nelson said. “If you look at the times we ended with today, if we could start with those times, these things are going to go places. I’m excited, I just hope they want to continue to get better and improve.

“You get to a meet like this and it’s just fun. We’ve got nothing on the table, we don’t have anything to lose, everything to gain and you’ve got to see where it goes and it’s interesting to see who really steps up to the plate.”

Regional Swimming Meet

At Pleasant Hill

Team Standings — 1. Ankeny 554, 2. West Des Moines Valley 485, 3. Southeast Polk 281, 4. Indianola 254, 5. Marshalltown 170, 6. Des Moines East 148, 7. Ottumwa 103, 8. Oskaloosa 57.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

EVENT RESULTS

(Champion plus MHS finishers)

200 MEDLEY RELAY — 1. Ankeny (Henning, Peters, Bergwall, Rumley) 1:48.79; 5. MHS (Propp, Jones, Hernandez, Jorgenson) 2:06.48.

200 FREESTYLE — 1. Madison Carleton, ANK, 1:56.30; 13. Erin Stanley, MHS, 2:17.17; 18. Ciera Randall, MHS, 2:36.58; 22. Diana Fernandez, MHS, 2:44.06.

200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY — 1. Kristin He, VAL, 2:14.56; 13. Hannah Case, MHS, 2:46.74.

50 FREESTYLE — 1. Jasmine Rumley, ANK, 23.36; 8. Cori Jorgenson, MHS, 26.52; 10. Taylor Jones, MHS, 27.47; 17. Maeve Janssen, MHS, 28.47.

100 BUTTERFLY — 1. Scout Bergwall, ANK, 58.40; 14. Case, MHS, 1:17.46.

100 FREESTYLE — 1. Rumley, ANK, 52.03; 13. Riley Robinson, MHS, 1:04.94.

500 FREESTYLE — Carleton, ANK, 5:09.22; 15. Samantha Propp, MHS, 6:36.24; 19. Randall, MHS, 7:20.83; 20. Espinoza, MHS, 7:28.31.

200 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1. Ankeny (Pearson, Bergwall, Carleton, Rumley) 1:39.23; 6. MHS (Jorgenson, Robinson, Jones, Hernandez) 1:49.26.

100 BACKSTROKE — 1. Bergwall, ANK, 59.23; 10. Propp, MHS, 1:10.64; 14. Stanley, MHS, 1:13.16; 18. Janssen, MHS, 1:18.21.

100 BREASTSTROKE — 1. Grace Broderick, VAL, 1:08.16; 8. Klaudia Hernandez, MHS, 1:14.83; 18. Robinson, MHS, 1:28.45.

400 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1. Ankeny (Pearson, Carleton, Rozinek, Henning) 3:41.02; 7. MHS (Jorgenson, Jones, Hernandez, Stanley) 4:04.30.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No