Aquagirls’ relays, diver Eide have solid performances at state meet

MARSHALLTOWN — In the opening event of the 2015 IGHSAU State Diving and Swimming Championships, there was a competitor from NCMP. In the final event of the 50th annual event, there was an NCMP relay team.

NCMP’s sophomore Morgann Eide and senior Elizabeth Myers were the first and last Aquagirl competitors in the state meet waters. They both were in their first state meet.

Eide was the first NCMP diver at a state meet since 2011. She finished 27th in the 30-diver field. Eide, who holds the NCMP record score for an 11-dive competition, executed five dives, but did not advance into the second round Friday night.

“I was happy with my diving,” Eide said after she was out of the competition. “I’m glad I could come to state this year. It’s a great experience and a lot of fun.”

Eide scored 158.85 points on her five dives. The top 16 divers in the first round of five dives advanced to the second round of three dives. There was another cut after those three dives for the final round of three dives.

“I thought Morgann’s first state appearance was pretty solid,” NCMP diving coach Kelly Rose said. “We led off with a 1.5 and a double which gained us some good points to start off with. There was nothing bad about the five dives she did. There’s some really good competition here at state.”

Rose said some divers really load their first round of five dives with a lot of points to ensure they make it into the second round. She said Eide had been diving solid dives all season, so they chose to leave Eide’s dive lineup the same.

“We thought she could put up enough points to move into the second round, but not tonight. She was very pleased with her performance, and so was I,” Rose said.

“Getting up there and doing what I love was great. I have a great coach to support me,” Eide said.

Saturday brought the swimming events to the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA Linda Bloom Natatorium. NCMP qualified in four swimming events — senior Samantha Hedrick collected individual medals for second in the 200-yard freestyle and a state championship in the 100 butterfly.

Hedrick combined with seniors Sydney Jenkins and Hannah Rhoads and sophomore Alexis Stout to swim the 200 freestyle relay race. Hedrick led off with a school-record 50 yards in 24.09 seconds followed by Stout, who was swimming in her first state meet, posting a 25.11-second leg.

Jenkins posted a 25.40 in the third leg while Rhoads had a 25.10-second anchor leg as the Aquagirls won their heat in 1 minute, 39.70 seconds. It was just off school-record time, which is 1:39.08.

NCMP finished 12th overall in the 200 freestyle relay event. It was the final race of the high school careers of Jenkins and Rhoads. Jenkins had competed in four consecutive state swim meets and Rhoads was in her third straight state meet.

“It was a lot of fun this year at state with my teammates by my side and my family supporting me,” Rhoads said. “We went out after it in the relay. Having Sydney, who is my best friend, swimming the same relay with me was a great way to finish the season.”

“There’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Jenkins said. “It really hasn’t hit me yet that I’m not going to swim again. Like Hannah said, it was great way to finish the season with a season’s-best time for our relay team.”

Myers took over the anchor leg of the NCMP 400 freestyle relay in the regional meet in which the foursome posted its season’s best time. She anchored the relay at the state meet following Hedrick, junior Sarah Prendergast and sophomore Madeline Webb.

Hedrick led off with a school-record 100-yard split to end her four straight state meet and career for NCMP. Prendergast and Webb competed in their first state meet.

“It was really fun. To have my senior year end at the state meet was amazing,” Myers said. “It had always been a goal of mine to swim at state, and it was never attainable until this year. I had been a distance swimmer for three years. I really improved this year in the sprint races, which put me on the relay.”

The NCMP 400 relay team shaved off some time off its best time of the season, taking 12th in 3:39.53. The two relays scored 10 points each for the team, which placed 12th with 37 points.

Ames ran away with the team championship with 355 points. Pleasant Valley finished second with 197.5 points. There were 33 teams competing in the 2015 state meet.

“The relays were outstanding for us,” NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson said. “There’s been years we’ve gotten to state and just held steady on times or even added time. Today, we dropped time on both of them which is amazing.”

Patterson said it was great to see the four seniors go out on their final swims at state.

“These guys really gelled. They are different ages and from different schools, but came together and wanted to do well at state. It was a great finish to the season,” Patterson said.

Newton/Colfax-Mingo/Pella had swimmer from those three schools along with Pella Christian and Prairie City-Monroe in 2015.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com