Ames turns away MHS girls
Bobcats\\\\\\\' fast start foiled by perennial power Little Cyclones
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown junior Adele Beek leads Mady Hermsen, top, and Ali Doolittle of Ames to the wall for the first turn during the 100-yard breaststroke on Tuesday at the MHS pool. Beek gave the Bobcats their only individual victory of the meet with this event title.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Members of the Marshalltown 400-yard freestyle relay team, including Adele Beek (facing) and Drea Ceren (back turned) celebrate after finishing second in the final race of Tuesday’s dual meet against Ames at the MHS pool.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Emma Case paddles during the 100-yard backstroke in Tuesday’s dual meet against Ames at the MHS pool. Case claimed third in the race with a time of 1 minute, 9.81 seconds.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown junior Adele Beek leads Mady Hermsen, top, and Ali Doolittle of Ames to the wall for the first turn during the 100-yard breaststroke on Tuesday at the MHS pool. Beek gave the Bobcats their only individual victory of the meet with this event title.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Members of the Marshalltown 400-yard freestyle relay team, including Adele Beek (facing) and Drea Ceren (back turned) celebrate after finishing second in the final race of Tuesday’s dual meet against Ames at the MHS pool.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Emma Case paddles during the 100-yard backstroke in Tuesday’s dual meet against Ames at the MHS pool. Case claimed third in the race with a time of 1 minute, 9.81 seconds.
Trending
Marshalltown girls' swimming and diving coach Angie Nelson has had teams in the past approach the postseason with lesser times than the Bobcats' 200-yard medley relay squad opened with on Tuesday night.
The Marshalltown foursome of Drea Ceren, Adele Beek, Emma Case and Leia Hernandez had more than a two-second advantage in winning the first event in Tuesday's eventual dual-meet defeat at the hands of Ames, 124-61, at the MHS pool.
The Bobcat quartet kicked off a long shot of a meet with a combined clocking of 1 minute, 58.09 seconds, beating the top Ames contingent to the wall by 2.39 seconds. The Little Cyclones, however, had an advantage in depth and gradually pulled away from the upstart Bobcats.
"That's a great start, that's a good time," Nelson said of the 200 medley relay. "We've been goign into regionals the last couple of years with a 2:00, so just to already have one of those off the bat, that's gonna set really well for the first few weeks here.
"I think that was super-momentum, I think it was a real positive for the girls. It's hard to walk into this meet because you kinda know how it's gonna turn out, but we were out here trying to grab everything we can."
Beek added the Bobcats' only individual event victory, hitting the wall first in the 100 breaststroke to win with a time of 1:12.58. Mady Hermsen of Ames was second in 1:12.71 -- just 13-hundreths shy of scoring gold in the event.
Beek led for the entire race before Hermsen charged over the final 50 meters to make for a photo finish.
"Adele had a great night in the breaststroke, and she had a decent time in the 200 individual medley as well," Nelson added. "We had some girls that started really close to where they left off at the end of the season last year."
Ames pulled away on the strength of its decided depth advantage, winning every other event and even sweeping the top three in a couple of them: the 500 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay.
The Bobcats bagged a handful of runner-up finishes in the early going to help keep Ames within striking distance. Drea Ceren was second in the 200 freestyle, Beek was second in the 200 IM, and Hernandez took second in the 50 freestyle.
MHS diver Harlie Thatcher was edged out for first place by Addy Binkowski of Ames, and Case came up with second place in the next race -- the 100 butterfly.
Hernandez took second in the 100 freestyle, but the Little Cyclones continued to pull away. After Beek won the 100, Ames closed out the dual with a five-second triumph in the 400 freestyle relay.
"We talked to the girls ahead of time about trying to keep the score as close as we could," said Nelson. "I think we were only down 17 after diving, so we were really hanging in there.
"We were very competitive in the first half of the meet, and in the second half of the meet we had to split some stuff up to pull relays together, so we did our best and came away with a couple of wins."
The Bobcats launch back into Iowa Alliance Conference play on Tuesday, Sept. 1, with a home meet against Des Moines North.