2003 Year in Review

Back to Sports: Swimming Listing | Back to Year in Review Index

Nothing is impossible

By Lindsay Smith
As their coach, Scuba Steve, unpacked the awards from the box, the trophies caught one swimmer’s eye. She was sitting at one of the desks in the office with two of her teammates, Megan Tenboer and Katie Kuehl. It was about an hour before the meet and already teams were beginning to show up.

“Hey, guys,” said the swimmer, “We’re going to get one of those.” She pointed to the three trophies now sitting out on the table. The trophies were for the first, second, and third over all placing teams.

The third annual Morrison Junior Varsity meet was October 13, 2003. Of the seven swimmers on the Morrison team only two swimmers, Amanda Smith and Rachel Fedyk, were sitting out. The rest had to swim; otherwise the host team of the meet would have no swimmers at all. Scuba shook his head. “It’s impossible for five girls to get a trophy at this meet.”

After saying the pledge of allegiance, the 3rd annual Morrison JV meet began. Of the ten teams that were invited to this meet, Morrison was the smallest of all by at least ten swimmers. So when other teams were asking who was “picked” to win the meet, Morrison was never even suspected of winning.

The meet went in the order that it always has, with the 200-medley relay up first. The Fillies that swam this event were: Megan Tenboer, Ann Schaefer, Lindsey Smith, and Michelle Bos. They won the event easily, as the next closest team was Newman, who was four seconds behind the Fillies. This was the start of the meet for the Fillies in which there wasn’t one person who didn’t contribute a point. In other words, of the ten events swam by the five Filly swimmers, not one placed further back than twelfth place. In fact no one was further back than tenth place.

Lindsey Smith was the next Filly up, swimming the 200-yard IM. She also won her event as she just touched out the senior Paige Berens of Pleasant Valley by 0.29 seconds. Her time was a personal best by two seconds: 2:36.23.

The next event was the 50 freestyle. The Fillies were able to have two swimmers in this event. Michelle Bos came close to stealing a first from Becky Bonar of Pleasant Valley, but resided to second by a tenth of a second. Michelle’s time was a 29.79, again under her goal time of thirty seconds, a new personal best. Katie Kuehl also swam the event. She took tenth place. Her time was a 32.87, taking a very close finish above Sterling swimmer Siina Swanson by 0.02 seconds.

Lindsey Smith came back to the pool to claim a second individual gold medal. She touched out all the swimmers with a clearance of over two seconds in the 100 butterfly. Lindsey’s final time was a 1.11.14.

Michelle Bos dove straight into a second place finish again in the freestyle, though this time she doubled her yardage and went for the 100. Michelle’s second silver medal came with a time of 1:05.94, another personal best.

During the fifteen minute break between Lindsey’s 100 fly and Michelle’s 100 free, senior Katie Kuehl made a deal with their coach, Scuba Steve. The Fillies had morning practice earlier that morning and they were supposed to have an hour practice afterward. Katie has had the goal of getting under seven minutes in the 500 free all year. Only in the last meet did she do that, and then it was only by a second. She showed a lot of confidence in herself as she proposed to her coach that if she again got under seven minutes, the Fillies wouldn’t have practice after the meet finished. Scuba agreed, and Katie’s event was called to the blocks. Her six teammates stationed themselves out around the pool to cheer her on. Katie got off to a quick lead. After only a 150, she was already a 25 ahead of everyone. After another 350 yards, Katie finished the race. She won her heat and took fourth overall. Her time was a season best: 6:57.23.

The next event for the Fillies was the 200-freestyle relay. The Fillies took second in this relay with a time of 2:03.25. They were two seconds ahead of third place and two seconds behind first place. Megan Tenboer, Ann Schaefer, Katie Kuehl, and Michelle Bos teamed together to get a silver medal.

Megan Tenboer blew by everyone in the 100-yard backstroke. She won the event with six seconds to spare. Her time was a personal best: 1:09.94. This was Megan’s only individual event of the night, as the rest of the team needed her for the three other relays.

The 100-yard breastroke brought a fifth place finish. The crowd saw Ann Schaefer scooping her way past Lauren Wiersema of Sterling by less than a second. Ann took a time of 1:27.43 and a yellow ribbon attached to a medal with her into the next event.

As the girls were waiting for the final event of the night, the 400-freestyle relay, they heard Scuba talking to their lead off swimmer, Megan Tenboer. “Tell the rest of the team that if we place in the top three of this event, then we’ll get a trophy.” When Lindsey heard about it, she grinned, because she had been the swimmer that said that they were going to get a trophy.

The relay started well, with Megan Tenboer handing the second place lead, by about a second, to Katie Kuehl. Katie maintained the second place lead and handed to Ann Schaefer. Ann scurried through the water and handed off to the anchor. Lindsey stayed in front of the other swimmers that were behind her. The Fillies finished in second place, behind only Pleasant Valley. The five Morrison girls swam the meet to a second place victory, ahead of Byron by nine points.

To the girls on the swim team, nothing is impossible. “It’s just a higher hurdle to jump over. It’s your attitude towards making the jump, no matter how high the hurdle is, that’s important,” stated one of the Fillies. “Life gives us many obstacles and the best part is proving to someone that you can do something, even if they think it’s impossible.”

by anonymous
2003-10-20 08:40:49