NCMP’s Blommers claims 10th at state

MARSHALLTOWN — It was her fastest time this season in a swimming pool which did not yield many exceptional times on Saturday. NCMP junior Lindsey Blommers was emotional following the 100-yard breaststroke race at Saturday’s 2017 Iowa Girls’ High School State Swimming and Diving Championships.

“I was just thinking about the race plan as the first heat was finishing,” Blommers said. “This whole week we worked on my tempo. I feel like my tempo was a lot faster today. I felt strong through the race — it hurt a lot and Coach P (Sarah Patterson) always said it will hurt when you’re putting in the effort. It’s the best I could do today.”

Blommers, who holds the NCMP Aquagirls’ records in the 100-yard and 100-meter breaststroke events, posted a season’s best 1 minute, 7.45 seconds. Her regional time was 1:07.64. Following the three heat races, Blommers placed 10th at the state meet.

“She had a great swim. We worked on having quicker breakouts and coming off the walls quicker, and we saw that from Lindsey today,” NCMP assistant coach Jenny Jensen said. “It wasn’t quite the time she wanted but she’s one of the hardest workers we have, and it will all work out for her.”

Jensen said the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA swimming pool was not the fastest pool. She said with a few exceptions, there were not a lot of outstanding swims in Saturday’s state races.

“Lindsey was right there in her race. One of our goals was to move up spots in the standings, and she moved up two spots after coming in seeded 12th,” Jensen said. “It was a long wait for her to swim today, but I believe it was worth it for her.”

There were four state meet records set, but of those two times were slower than the individual regional times coming into the state meet.

Ames junior Molly Winer dropped her regional time by a second from 1:03.49 to a state championship time of 1:02.62 in the 100 breaststroke. Arianna Ottavia, a sophomore from Bettendorf, was second in 1:03.94 and Cedar Falls senior Olivia Clark was third in 1:04.33.

Blommers took third in her heat race, just out-touched by Johnston senior Kendall Hostetler, 1:07.34. The heat was won by Bettendorf junior Lauren Turney in 1:06.05.

Blommers admitted going into the state meet, she had hit a plateau on her times in her feature event during the 2017 season. She holds the 100-yard breaststroke record for NCMP at 1:04.61 set when she won a 2016 regional championship. Blommers went 1:05.70 for fifth place at the 2016 state meet.

“I’m just trying to push through it right now,” Blommers said. “Today’s race, well, it was the best I could do today.”

Ames came into the swimming events on Saturday with a team lead after going first and sixth in the diving event on Friday. Ames won five of the 10 swimming events on its way to a seventh state team championship in eight years. It’s third straight title.

Ames won with 384 points followed y Dowling Catholic with 271.5 and Bettendorf with 203.5 as top three teams. Blommers scored seven points to put NCMP in 27th.

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