Aquagirls swim strong at state

MARSHALLTOWN — Two seniors finished their NCMP Aquagirl careers with a strong swim at the 2019 Iowa Girls’ High School State Swimming and Diving Meet. Three sophomores and two freshman Aquagirls know what they want for next year after Saturday’s state meet at Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA.

NCMP had all three of the relays competing on Saturday. The three Aquagirls’ relays posted season-best times and finished above their state meet seedings.

“What a fantastic meet for our girls,” NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson said. “These girls really came together here at state as the little things we worked on all week showed up. They were really excited to be here and that’s the most important ingredient of all.”

NCMP qualified the three relays but also had one individual event qualifier. They all swam on Saturday and as a team finished with 11 points for 24th.

Dowling Catholic unseated four-time defending team champion Ames for its first girls’ swimming and diving team championship. Dowling Catholic had 360 points followed by Ames with 328 and Ankeny was third with 200 points.

Sophomore Hannah Nedder qualified in the 100-yard butterfly for the second straight year. She swam her personal-best time of 58.07 seconds in Friday’s individual event preliminaries. Nedder advanced to Saturday’s consolation heat as the 11th-fastest time on Friday.

“The girls wanted to come here, do well and drop time and that’s what they did,” Patterson said. “They had the attitude of gratitude saying ‘we’re blessed to be here,’ as they know how few people make it to state. They brought that attitude into their races and Coach (Jenny) Jensen and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Saturday opened for the Aquagirls with the 200-yard medley relay race. The foursome of freshman Maylei Ruggles, senior Kenzie Van Maanen, Nedder and freshman Lillie Ray went into state seeded 15th at 1:52.60.

Ruggles opened with a 29.92-second backstroke leadoff leg followed by Van Maanen swimming the breaststroke leg in 31.77 seconds. Nedder went 26.08 in her 50-yard butterfly and Ray swam the freestyle anchor leg in 24.57.

“I was a little nervous but I felt good in leading it off. I was surprised I was able to break 30 seconds in my 50 backstroke again. I thought it might have been a one-time thing,” Ruggles said. “I’m ready to try a little harder and I have three more years for high school swimming.”

The Aquagirls’ medley relay finished in 1:52.34 as its season’s best. The relay ended up 14th at state.

A year ago, Van Maanen was watching from the stands as the Aquagirls’ relays swam at state. She went as an alternate swimmer.

“I really feel good about being able to swim at state this year. We did well as a team with a PR and we placed higher than we were seeded and that’s always good,” Van Maanen said. “I felt really strong swimming today. I worked on a couple of things this past week that really helped me swim stronger than at districts.”

Ray, who would anchor all three of the NCMP relays at the state meet, said there was so much adrenaline pumping when she was up on the blocks. She swam freestyle in all three relays.

“It’s such an indescribable feeling. I knew this was what we worked for all season and it was our time,” Ray said.

Nedder was up next in the consolation heat of the 100 butterfly. She laid down a 58.96 on Saturday which had her finishing 14th overall at her second state. She was 17th a year ago and didn’t make it to Saturday’s competition.

“Friday’s race was a really good one. I went out faster than I normally do and it helped against really good competition,” Nedder said. “Today, I was a bit slower but felt good swimming. I felt good swimming the 50 butterfly in the medley relay. We were going for the school record (1:50.30) but didn’t quite get that. We had a great swim.”

Nedder, Ruggles and Ray combined with sophomore Maggie Garrett for a season’s-best time of 1:41.15 — a drop of two seconds — to finish 16th in the 200 freestyle relay. NCMP was seeded 24th going into the state meet.

“There’s a lot of pressure, especially for me as a freshman, being the anchor because it’s your job to bring it home for the relay,” Ray said. “The pressure helps me swim better and pushed me to go hard for my teammates.”

Ray brought it home with a final leg of 24.94 seconds. Nedder’s leadoff 50 was 25.60 followed by Ruggles in 25.21 and Garrett in 25.65.

“It wasn’t as nerve wrecking as I thought it was going to be,” Garrett said. “I was confident in my team to get the job done. We’ve been doing that the last few weeks and had faith in each other. It’s such a blessing from God to be apart of this team. We dropped time after being seeded eighth in our heat and we finished third in it and 16th overall.”

Ruggles said the competition was unbelievably high at state. Sophomore Lauren Zaabel echoed those words.

“Watching some of these amazing swimmers is eye-opening. They swam phenomenally. The nerves kicked in when I was on the block — ‘I’m about to swim at state for the first time’ — and I was shaking,” Zaabel said. “I felt strong in the water and I got my goal I set coming into state. Hopefully, I can get back here next year.”

Zaabel joined with Nedder, Ray and senior Erika Van Sickle to swim in the final event of the day — the 400 freestyle relay. Nedder posted a leadoff leg of 55.65 seconds with Zaabel following with a 57.75.

Van Sickle, who was in her second straight state meet in the event, had a 57.46 100 yards. Ray anchored the relay with a 54.98 to help the Aquagirl foursome win its heat in a season’s-best time of 3:45.84 — a drop of almost four seconds (3:49.10).

“I took it out as fast as I could and the girls next to me was ahead of me. At the end of the first 50, we took a breath at the same time. I saw her looking at me threw her clear goggles,” Van Sickle said. “I swam better and when I pushed off I was going to beat her to the next wall.”

Patterson said the four swimming the 400 freestyle relay had to wait to the final event of a long day. She said the four Aquagirls came out strong, took the first heat by storm and “they wanted it.”

NCMP’s 400 freestyle relay was seeded 26th out of 32 teams. It finished 19th at the state meet.

“That was a great way to end my senior season. Last year was fun as my first state meet with the group of girls I swam with. This year with the new girls, it was a blast,” Van Sickle said.

“Having the 200 and 400 relays drop time like we did was great,” Nedder said. “Swimming at state this year was great fun again.”

Patterson said she was proud of Nedder for taking the next step in her individual event from finishing 17th a year ago and making it to the Saturday final 16. She said she has discussed with Nedder some things to work on during the offseason.

“Hannah is a quiet, confident competitor and a great teammate. She inspires the other girls to work hard to qualify individually as well as with relays,” Patterson said. “Our seniors did amazing. Allison (Paulius) was a great alternate swimmer for the team.”

Paulius, who is a senior, was in the stands cheering on her NCMP teammates.

“To see my teammates swim so well in events we’re all passionate about was tremendous,” Paulius said. “They placed higher in the events than they were seeded. I’m proud of these girls and of what we as a team did all season.”

Patterson said she was excited about next year.

“If you look at our team, we’re pretty young so there will be a lot to look forward to next season,” she said.

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