Girls swimming: Bulldogs qualify for state
Nov. 7—JOHNSTON — Excitement and nerves.
The Ottumwa High School girls swimming team had plenty of both when Saturday began heading into the state qualifying meet at the Summit Middle School competition pool. There may have been more nerves as the day went along as the Bulldogs could only wait and hope their times would be good enough to qualify for the Iowa Girls High School state swimming meet.
"It's just a waiting game at this point," Ottumwa head girls swimming coach Staci Bergman said moments after the Region 4 meet concluded.
Just a few hours later, excitement took back over for the Bulldogs after learning their times would be good enough to compete in four different events on Friday in Marshalltown. Willow Larsen, the only Ottumwa swimmer that was assured of competing at state having already qualified during the regular season in the 100-yard backstroke, will compete in all four Bulldog state events.
Larsen, Mac Payne, Ava and Finley Johnson both medaled at regionals and qualified with one of the overall 32 fastest times posted in the 200 and 400 free relay races. After finishing sixth in the 200 free relay in 1:44.99, the Ottumwa teammates wrapped up the day with a fourth-place finish in the 400 free relay in 3:55.
Both times proved to be good enough to qualify for state 29th out of 32 teams in each race. Payne, Larsen and the Johnson sisters made it into the state meet in the 400 relay by less than two seconds while edging into the 200 relay by less than half-a-second.
"I'm so proud of all of us," Larsen said. "Whatever happens happens. I think we performed great, so I'm happy with it."
Larsen will add a state swim in the 200-yard individual medley after nearly breaking her third program record on Saturday in the regional meet. Larsen earned her first of four regional medals by placing fifth in 2:15.67, qualifying 25th overall lowering her personal-best time in the race missing out on Laurie Bratten's 23-year-old school record time of 2:15.57.
"I'm proud with how I've swam in that race this season. I might be able to get that down a little lower," Larsen said. "It'll be awesome to get another chance to swim in that race."
Already locked into state after setting a school record earlier this season in the 100-yard backstroke, posting a time of 59.24 seconds at Marshalltown back in September, Larsen narrowly missed out on winning the regional championship in the same race on Saturday. Ankeny senior Rachel Rolow edged Larsen by just over a second, winning the race in 58.74 while Larsen finished second in 59.83.
"I think it was very helpful to have things like the five-minute cool downs between races. The nerves are also something that come with these meets, so that's something you have to get used to," Larsen said. "I think we can take a lot away from the experience we gained in this meet. Our main goal was to get to state, so however we perform, I think we're going to be happy with it."
Qualifying in the 200 and 400 free relays made Payne the first Ottumwa swimmer to qualify all four years for the state swimming meet. The Bulldogs finished sixth overall with 114 points at the regional meet while Centerville placed eighth, scoring 49 points led by eighth-place finishes in both the 200 (2:12.05) and 400 (5:07.83) relays along with 15th-place swims by Brynn Clark in the 50-yard freestyle (28.3) and 100-yard butterfly (1:24.92).
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
