T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - The Marshalltown girls swimming and diving team has qualified three divers and two relays for the upcoming state championships at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA. Pictured, from left, are Averie Wittkop, Taylor Jones, Abby Tollefson, Maeve Janssen, Mia Rasmusson, Lesli Waltermire, Klaudia Hernandez and Hannah Taylor.

The practice situation at the Marshalltown High School swimming pool is a bit chaotic as the Bobcat girls’ team trains for the state championships, which begins with Friday’s swimming preliminaries and ends with Saturday’s noon finals at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA. Spectators will not be allowed, which will create a different atmosphere than most of the team’s meets this year.

The five Bobcat girls participating in the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle relay — Klaudia Hernandez, Averie Wittkop, Lesli Waltermire and Maeve Janssen (with alternate Taylor Jones available if any Bobcat can’t participate) — were working on the right side of the pools, while the Marshalltown boys’ team practiced for the upcoming season on the left side of the pool.

Head coach Angie Nelson said the practice was just part of the weird season the Bobcats have worked through, particularly for the senior class.

“We want to give these kids a great sendoff,” Nelson said. “There’s milestones there that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and I hope this is one of them.”

Saturday’s meet will be the final athletic session for the rest of the month of November, with the school going to virtual learning starting Monday.

Nelson was thrilled and relieved to be able to let her swimmers compete in the state meet, as she was worried about having to work the meet and not be able to participate in it.

“I think what’s really meaningful for our girls is that we host the meet in Marshalltown,” Nelson said. “We take a lot of community pride in this event. These are our little hometown heroes.”

The Bobcats snuck in with the 30th seed in the medley relay and the 32nd seed in the freestyle relay. Nelson said the main goal for the team is going to be about improving on their seeding positions and trimming times, something that’s been a focus all year and that helped the relay teams make state.

Cutting three seconds alone off their seed time in the freestyle relay, Nelson said the relay teams have the capacity to cut even more time off — crucial in a state meet where other relay teams will be prepping the same amount.

Hernandez, the lone senior swimmer to make state, will see her career come to a close after choosing not to swim anywhere after high school.

She described the feeling as sad, knowing that fans won’t be allowed to be there to see her in her final competitive meet.

“In years past, we’ve been able to do a lot more and there wasn’t that scare of, ‘Are we gonna have the same meet or not?’ But we’re getting through it,” Hernandez said. “It’s really sad. It’s a sad thing for this to be my last competitive meet.”

As Hernandez’s career closes, so does a season unlike any other for the Bobcats.