Scotton, Hedrick earn state swim medals

MARSHALLTOWN — Hannah Scotton had been there before. Samantha Hedrick had not.

The two NCMP Aquagirls stepped up on the podium at Saturday’s 2013 Iowa Girls’ High School State Swimming and Diving Championship meet. Their smiles told the story.

Scotton was able to move up one spot from a year ago on the podium. The junior claimed the fourth-place state medal in the 100-yard butterfly event. She did it by lowering her own NCMP record in the event, 57.36 seconds.

Hedrick, a sophomore, posted a personal-best time of 58.17 seconds to capture the sixth-place medal.

“I just wanted to swim strong and leave it all in the pool,” Scotton said. “I could see the girl next to me, who won it, and I just pushed off the wall and pushed myself harder. We had practiced all week on the faster turns and better streamlines. It paid off.”

“After the first 50, I could see I was in eighth and when I made the turn at the wall, I said  ‘I better go,’” said Hedrick. “I was shocked when I saw I got sixth. I was happy with my time.”

The two were among the seven NCMP swimmers at the state meet in Marshalltown Saturday.

Carly Colville finished her high school swimming career in strong fashion. Colville, who swam in her fourth consecutive state meet, led off two freestyle relays for the Aquagirls Saturday. In her final swim, Colville posted her fastest 100-yard freestyle split to pace the 400-yard relay team to break its own school record.

“This was one of our best state meets ever,” said Sarah Patterson, NCMP head coach. “Carly had a great meet to finish her career. She had her best-ever split in the 100 freestyle for the relay, 55.2 seconds. She was a leader leading up to this week and the state meet. I can’t say enough good things about Carly.”

For Colville, the 2013 state meet was a great way to leave the sport.

“I’ve been swimming since I was five and I loved it from the first time I hopped in a pool,” Colville said. “We were really pumped up to swim fast in the relays at state. I was very happy with the way I swam Saturday. I’m so proud to have been on a team with these girls.”

Colville said the 400-yard relay team, which dropped its school record mark to 3 minutes, 39.57 seconds, was very emotional following the race. Colville, junior Rachel Prendergast and sophomore Sydney Jenkins and Hedrick had set the school mark at 3:41.56 a week before at the regional meet.

“For the 400 relay to break its own school record was amazing. First was Carly’s career-best split then Rachel had a season-best split at 56.3 and Sydney better her time by a second, 55.5. Samantha swam an incredible 52.5 100. They were all smiles when they came over to us,” Patterson said.

NCMP opened the state meet with a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. Jenkins led off in with the backstroke then sophomore Hannah Rhoads took over, swimming the breaststroke. Scotton swam the butterfly leg and Hedrick anchored it with the freestyle. They finished in just above their school record time (1:50.45), taking seventh overall at 1:50.88.

“In all the relays, we went into the state meet wanting to drop some time off and we went out to do that,” Hedrick said. “We came so close to the podium in the 200 medley.”

Sixth place went to Ankeny in 1:50.64.

“We finished 12th as a team in this meet. Without diving points and the six of our combined team, that is a phenomenal performance for these girls,” Patterson said. “Maybe now, these girls will believe they are one of the better teams in the state. This has been a fun week with this group.”

“We all felt good about the medley relay. We were a bit nervous since it was the first race of the meet. We got pretty close to our record and to the podium,” Scotton said. “We worked on having fast relay starts, we did a lot of sprint work plus worked on our turns and streamlines all week. Everything adds up in a race.”

Scotton and Hedrick were up next in the 100-yard butterfly race. They combined with Colville and junior Sara Martin in the 200-yard freestyle relay event. The foursome finished 16th overall in 1:40.92, which was close to the school mark of 1:40.26, the four set last week at regional.

Jenkins, who was the first backstroke qualifier for NCMP in the 21 years Patterson has been coaching the team, competed in the 100-yard backstroke. She finished 23rd in 1:02.36.

“Everybody just settled down and had a strong state meet. We have six of these ladies back next year. Knowing the type of ladies they are this meet will motivate them to want to do event better next year,” Patterson said.

Scotton and Hedrick echoed those words in that both have already started thinking about next year.

For Colville...

“I believe this is it for me. I ready to try new things and figure out what I want to do with me life. I joined the club swim team in fourth grade. I come from a swimming family. I’ve had a great time swimming with this team and had a tremendous senior season,” Colville said.