Girls swimming: Rock them like a Hurricane
· Yahoo Sports
JOHNSTON — She already had the medals, and a ticket, to secure a return to the Iowa High School Girls State Swimming meet.
Visit lej.life for more information.
It was already a good day at the Summit Middle School Pool for Ottumwa sophomore Piper Gevock on Saturday. As it turned out, it was about to get even better.
"I'd say in the past, I've struggled with taking (the 200-yard individual medley) out fast, so it was just kind of fun being out there in front," Gevock said as an announcement was being made.
"Our athlete of the regionals: From Ottumwa, Piper Gevock!"
All of sudden, Gevock wasn't just a two-time regional champion. In just her second year of high school swimming, Gevock was named the regional meet's top swimmer beating out state qualifiers from bigger schools including Johnston, Southeast Polk and West Des Moines Valley.
It gave the Ottumwa sophomore even more of a reason to smile.
"That's super exciting. I did not expect that," Gevock said. "Every team gets one vote for that, so that's exciting."
Gevock wasn't the only swimmer that enjoyed hearing that announcement. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont sophomore Penelope Morrison, competing for Oskaloosa, couldn't help but smile after hearing that her former Ottumwa YMCA teammate was named the top swimmer of Saturday's state qualifier.
"That is so cool. That's my dog," Morrison said of Gevock. "It's so cool that someone I know earned that honor. It felt a little bit like an old Iowa State YMCA meet with a little bit more competition."
The two former YMCA Hurricanes combined to win three of the eight individual races in the meet and qualified for state in five of the 11 races. Gevock was the only swimmer to win multiple individual races on Saturday, starting her second regional meet off with a win in the 200-yard individual medley dropping nearly five seconds off her best time of the season to win the race by 3.32 seconds over Johnston freshman Dana Assaad in 2:12.37, moving within two seconds of breaking her own program record set in last year's state meet.
"You never really do how you're going to do in the middle of tapper. I didn't really realize how nervous I was going into it," Gevock said. "Winning that race and securing a trip to state kind of took some pressure off me. It's pretty close to the times I was swimming last year at this time."
Gevock father, Ottumwa head girls swimming coach Joe Gevock, was also impressed by his daughter's individual medley. The time proved to be the 10th fastest among the state qualifiers in the event.
"Her first three splits were just on fire," Joe Gevock said. "The temperature of the pool really affected you the further you went because of how warm it was. We won't have to worry about that at state. That pool is always cold. That's what you want in those longer races so that you're not getting overheated."
Morrison followed up the win by her former Hurricane teammate with a state-clinching victory of her own in the shortest race. Earning the title of the region's fastest swimmer, Morrison won a back-and-forth sprint down the pool winning the 50-yard freestyle in 24.47 seconds posting the 11th-fastest overall state-qualifying mark.
"I've been keeping my eye on this race. I've been setting goals for myself since last season and one of those goals was to win," Morrison said. "Last year, I was supposed to get first or second at regionals and wound up getting fourth. That made me work harder to win this year.
"I've been struggling with my 50 freestyle time over the past couple of weeks trying to see what I could do to make my time faster. That's my best time ever. I've been working really hard to make those little tweaks just to drop off those milliseconds."
The 50-yard freestyle win came in the middle of a successful day for Morrison, who qualified for state in three different events including the 100-yard freestyle after finishing fourth on Saturday in Johnston in 55.36 seconds. The day began for Oskaloosa with a medal-winning swim by Ella Walter, Josie Sisul, Ellie Fross and Rylee Klyn in the 200-yard medley relay finishing fourth at regionals in 1:58.91 earning a state berth with the 31st-fastest overall qualifying time among all six state qualifying meets.
"It was just a lot of fun to win medals in every race I was in and break some more school records throughout the day," Morrison said. "We broke records in the 100-yard breaststroke, the 400-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. I was involved in two of those and I already have the 50-yard freestyle record. I'm looking forward to swimming at state."
Joining Morrison, Walter, Fross, Klyn and Sisul at state for Oskaloosa will be Natalie Beeler. In her first year of high school swimming, Beeler competed in both the 50-yard and 100-yard para freestyle races finishing the 50 in 39.49 seconds and the 100 in 1:30.9.
"She's pretty good. I'm excited to watch her at state and see what she can do," Beeler said. "Everyone on this team is so happy for each other. We all get along. We've all become best friends."
While Morrison won the regional title in the shortest race, Gevock won the regional title in the longest race of the meet. Seeded fourth coming into the meet in the 500-yard freestyle, Gevock jumped out in front of the final heat with an opening lap of 27.97 seconds over West Des Moines Valley freshman Maeve Ledger and Johnston freshman Addie Meyer.
The lead eventually grew to 1.5 seconds midway through the race as Gevock swam the fastest three laps of final heat race. After seeing the lead shrink just under a minute heading into the final laps, Gevock picked up the pace posting her third-fastest of her 10 laps after hearing the bell for the final turn eventually securing the win in a time of 5:17.95 beating out the top-seeded Leder by 1.24 seconds.
"I could see (Leder) closing in a little bit, so I really tried to push to make sure she couldn't cut any more time off my lead," Gevock said. "I was pretty tired at the end of that race, but when it comes down to the last lap you've just got to give it everything you've got."
Oskaloosa finished sixth with 165 points in the regional meet as a team. Ottumwa finished seventh with 112 points while Centerville, led by a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard free relay (2:10.33) from Maggie Belloma, Carley Whitney, Adalyn Swaby and Katie Haas.
Gevock and Morrison will compete at the Iowa High School Girls State Swimming meet starting on Thursday in the preliminary races for the individual events at the University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City. The top 16 swimmers in those individual events to compete on Friday with the championship races in all eight individual and the three relay races will be held.
Action on both days at the state meet begins at 11 a.m.