Aquagirls claim three regional championships

INDIANOLA — “I don’t have the words to tell you what this means to me,” said senior Rachel Prendergast after winning an Iowa regional championship in the 100-yard freestyle Saturday.

Prendergast won the race in a personal-best time of 55.84 seconds to help NCMP pile up points on its way to second place in the final team standings of the regional swim meet at Indianola.

NCMP’s Aquagirls have three regional champions.

Junior Samantha Hedrick broke her own pool record at Indianola YMCA in wining the 100-yard butterfly in 57.11 seconds. Junior Hannah Rhoads also swam under the pool record time in finishing second to her NCMP teammate, 57.90, which was good fast enough to qualify her for the state meet.

Prendergast and Hedrick combined with senior Hannah Scotton and junior Sydney Jenkins to earn another automatic berth to the Iowa girls’ state swim meet. The NCMP foursome broke its pool record set on Sept. 4 in taking the 400 freestyle relay championship in 3 minutes, 39.77 seconds, just shy of the NCMP record.

NCMP qualified all three of tis relays for the state meet. Jenkins, Rhoads, Scotton and Hedrick combined for second in the 200 medley relay in 1:51.13. Senior Sara Martin, Scotton, sophomore Emily Miller and Hedrick established a new NCMP record, 1:39.48, for second in the 200 freestyle relay.

“Our goal was to place as many of our swimmers on the podium, score points, win regional championships and qualify as many as we could for state. We also came in going after second place as a team because we knew it would tough to knock off Waukee,” said Sarah Patterson, NCMP head coach. “What a regional meet our girls had today.”

Waukee won the regional team championship with 494.5 points. NCMP was second with 439.

The 2014 state swim meet is Saturday at Marshalltown.

More on the NCMP Aquagirls’ run in the regional pool in Monday’s Newton Daily News.