Polar Bears sink Bobcat swimmers
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown’s Leia Hernandez swims her way to first place in the 500-yard freestyle during Tuesday’s dual meet against Des Moines North at the MHS pool. Hernandez won with a time of 6 minutes, 0.42 seconds.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown’s Addison Elmore, left, swims alongside Des Moines North’s Lydia Cunningham during the 100-yard breaststroke in Tuesday’s dual meet at the MHS pool.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown's Emma Case cuts through the water during the 100-yard butterfly in Tuesday's Iowa Alliance Conference dual meet with Des Moines North at the MHS pool. Case won the race with a time of 1 minute, 8.21 seconds, but the Bobcats fell to the Polar Bears 89-87.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown’s Leia Hernandez swims her way to first place in the 500-yard freestyle during Tuesday’s dual meet against Des Moines North at the MHS pool. Hernandez won with a time of 6 minutes, 0.42 seconds.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown’s Addison Elmore, left, swims alongside Des Moines North’s Lydia Cunningham during the 100-yard breaststroke in Tuesday’s dual meet at the MHS pool.
T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE Marshalltown's Emma Case cuts through the water during the 100-yard butterfly in Tuesday's Iowa Alliance Conference dual meet with Des Moines North at the MHS pool. Case won the race with a time of 1 minute, 8.21 seconds, but the Bobcats fell to the Polar Bears 89-87.
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The numbers problem laid itself bare on Tuesday at the Marshalltown High School pool.
Des Moines North led for most of the night and overcame the Marshalltown girls' swimming team's late surge for a thrilling 89-87 victory that came down to the final race.
The Polar Bears, in pulling up one eighth-grader to the squad, had the advantage to overtake the Bobcats and their limited roster in an Iowa Alliance Conference dual meet.
One more swimmer, two more points, an entirely different outcome.
"I'm just a little disappointed, but not in the way we swam," said MHS head coach Angie Nelson. "We just need to get after it faster."
The Bobcats were a bit blindsided by North's lineup, which was full to the point of having junior varsity competitors in a couple events. Marshalltown was literally one swimmer short, and that difference meant the difference on the scoreboard at the end of the night.
Even a rearranging of the lineup wouldn't have changed Tuesday's final tally.
"We talked to the girls a little bit about maybe coming out a bit stronger, a little bit more aggressive in the first half of the meet," Nelson said. "I don't think they really felt the urgency, so we started falling behind.
"Our girls are pretty versatile, and I can move them around, so we put them where we thought we could score the points against what we thought North had. We came up a little short in the first half and so we knew it was going to be tight."
North senior standout Haylie Weinheimer helped the Polar Bears win seven of 12 events, including the finale in comeback fashion. Weinheimer anchored North to victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay, coming from behind to break the 81-all tie on the team scoring.
"I underestimated them," Nelson said. "They've got some returning talent -- we knew Hailey was still there and she's an excellent swimmer -- but they've got a couple other little ones and I think they grabbed some youngsters as well. So they can fill a roster and we can't, so unfortunately that's where the meet whent tonight."
Marshalltown senior Leia Hernandez was a part of three event victories to lead her squad on the evening, claiming the 50-yard freestyle in 25.74 seconds, the 500 freestyle in 6:00.42, and teaming up with Emma Case, Addison Elmore and Adele Beek to claim the 200 freestyle in a neck-and-neck race with North.
Weinheimer swam the anchor leg for the Polar Bears and put up a 23.99-second split to make it a touch-out at the end. Marshalltown won in 1:47.65 and North timed in at 1:47.80.
The Bobcats' victory gave them their largest lead of the night, 69-61, but it wasn't enough to fend off the Polar Bears. North won both the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke before riding Weinheimer to the win in the finale.
"We had some great splits from our swimmers and we pulled points where we could, but we just needed a couple more one-ups," Nelson said. "Where we got fourth place, we needed third. But we had good splits, so this is promising."
Case captured the 100 butterfly in the first event back in the pool after the diving competition, which featured a total of one entry. MHS senior Harlie Thatcher bettered her six-dive score from a week earlier in winning with a 227.60 -- 35.1 points better than in the Bobcats' opener against Ames.
"Harlie had a great night on the diving board, so that's an excellent increase from her," Nelson said. "We had a meet last week that was a good trial run for us. We swam fairly well for a good out-of-the-gate kind of start, and then this [meet] was just a good test of grit, I don't know any other way to say it.
"We moved some kids around and said 'you gotta step up' and we got the step-ups from a lot of them. We just missed a couple opportunities to grab one place higher."
Beek claimed second-place points in the 200 freestyle (2:11.16) and the 500 freestyle (6:06.16), while Elmore was runner-up in the 100 freestyle (59.22) and the 100 breaststroke (1:23.06). Case claimed second in the 200 individual medley (2:29.84).
The Bobcats are back at it next Tuesday with a trip to Des Moines East.