2004 Year in Review

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Goin’ to State

By: Lindsey Smith
The Sectional swim meet is what the swimming season is all about. It’s where you qualify for State, or go home wishing you had worked harder at practice. It’s when the Fillies finally get to shave after about three months (I know you’re thinking it’s gross, but that’s just how dedicated these girls were this year!). They get to pork out on as much pasta as they can hold, and on top of that, they get to go get a massage from Vicki and Heather at Madison Street Spa. It’s a good time! And it’s even better when it hits you that you’re going to State because your teammates just had the race of their lives.

Every Filly that swam on Saturday met, or was close to, all of their goals. One of these goals was to send four of the girls to State. Morrison had an awesome chance at sending Amanda “Smiley” Smith, Kendra Kuehl, Jamie Grau, and Rachel Fedyk to State in the 200-yard free relay. There was also a good chance that Amanda and Rachel would make it in both of their individual events. Both of them qualified in the 50, and Rachel made it in the 100 free. Amanda just missed her 100 fly qualification by half a second. The 200 free relay cut three and a half seconds and dominated the pool to head to State. Morrison qualified for State in 3 out of 12 events.
Morrison just missed medalling in the 200-yard medley relay. They finished in seventh with a time of 2:02.95, which is a new MHS fresh-soph record by over three seconds. Kendra led of the relay and gave a close fourth place to Jamie. Jamie passed everyone in the breaststroke to give Lindsey Smith a small lead. Lindsey held the Fillies at first in the butterfly. Michelle Bos dove in and lost only a fraction of a second to Harlem High School, putting the Fillies to second in their heat. In the heat that followed, Morrison ended up having a faster time than one of the relays to bump them up to seventh place overall. The Fillies were only a fourth of a second behind the medalling sixth place.
In the 200-yard freestyle, Michelle Bos won her heat. She finished in 17th overall with a time of 2:22.52. This is Michelle’s PB (personal best) by 0.16 seconds.
Jamie hopped in the pool again, this time for the 200-yard I.M. She finished second in her heat and seventh overall. Jamie cut six seconds off of her time to go from a 2:33.69 to a 2:27.24 PB. Jamie’s time was the second best freshmen time in the meet.
The final event before the first break was the 50-yard freestyle. Rachel and Amanda again went one-two. They both had State qualifying times. Rachel swam the 50 in 23.75, while Amanda was right behind her with a 24.41. Rachel broke three records in one swim. She broke the Sectional record, the pool record and the MHS Varsity record. Rachel’s time also qualified her for the U.S. Open for club swimming. The next closest to these two Fillies was about half a second behind. State time for this event is 24.99. (Later after all the Sectional results were posted, we found out that Rachel had swum the fourth best time in the state, and Amanda was right with her with the 12th best time.)
After the break, Amanda looked to earn another trip to state. This event was the 100-yard butterfly. Amanda fell just short after a nail-bitter. Ellie Eshleman (Sterling) won the event by 1:01.21, while Amanda followed with a 1:01.73. This time was Amanda’s PB by about two seconds.
Amanda’s sister Lindsey was also in this event. She finished just out of placing at 13th. Lindsey broke her Fresh-Soph record that she had just set two weeks ago by about a second and a half. Lindsey’s PB swim stopped the clock at 1:08.35, just 0.02 seconds behind 12th place.
Rachel won the 100-yard freestyle also. She creamed the competition by over two seconds. Rachel qualified for state by time and placing first. Her time was 53.19, while the State time is 54.29. Rachel also broke the MHS record and pool record in this swim.
Joining Rachel in the 100 was Michelle. Michelle had the race of her life (so far) in this event. She beat everyone in her heat by about four seconds. She also beat four of the swimmers in the next heat. Michelle dropped from a 1:04.36 to a 1:01.94. She finished in 15th place.
Lindsey took to the pool for the 500-yard free. There she dropped five seconds for her PB of 5:57.45. She finished in 10th place, just ahead of 11th place by less than a half of a second.
Christina Justice also swam the 500. She finished in 20th place overall, with her PB time of 7:00.36. Christina cut four seconds. She was behind in her heat for about the first 200, until she started creeping up and passing people in the last 100 to take second in her heat.
The next event was the most exciting one of the day for the Morrison swimmers. It was the 200-yard freestyle relay. Though the Fillies blew away the pool by three seconds, this was still the event that caused most of the Morrison fans there to lose their voices. The Fillies final time was 1:40.56, which is now a new pool record by over two seconds. Another record was broken in this race and that was Morrison’s own Varsity record. This set of girls also broke the MHS record by two seconds.
Both of the seniors swam an awesome race, as they again went sub-25 in their splits. Another thing that was equally impressive was those two freshmen. They both swam a 26. Amanda started the relay off with a 24.66 (again under the State time), which gave Kendra a second head start. Kendra’s split was a 26.49 (the first time she’s ever swam a 26), while Jamie followed with a 26.04 (Also her first time she ever swam a 26.). Both freshmen held the lead for Rachel to anchor. She was given a second head start, but she didn’t need it. She swam a 23.37 (That’s ridiculously fast.). The next closest anchor was two seconds behind Rachel. Morrison made it to State because they won the event, but they just missed the qualifying time of 1:40.49 by 0.06 seconds to finish with a 1:40.56.
Kendra (for a good reason) was exhausted when she was called into the pool for the 100-yard backstroke. She was about a second off of her seed time with a time of 1:10.48, which still landed her at 15th place.
Christina finished in 30th place in the breaststroke. She finished with a 1:36.22.
In the final event the Fillies took almost pulled out a spoiler. They were contenders for the State birth in the 400 free relay, but fell just under two seconds short. The relay itself did awesome. Amanda led the relay off with a 54.22 (Again, that’s a State time.) Kendra dove in after her and swam a 58.98 (First time under a minute). Jamie jumped in after her to swim her 59.44 split (Also her first time under a minute). Rachel anchored the relay with a 52.81 (That’s also ridiculously fast.) Rachel gained about five seconds on Freeport (who won the event) but it still wasn’t enough to bump them out. The Fillies finished in third with a time of 3:45.45, which is a new school record by five seconds.
There were 18 teams in the Sectional, and with only seven swimmers, the Fillies finished in fifth. Boylan won this Sectional meet with 225 points. They, however, sent only two swimmers to state. Sterling followed, one point behind. Then came Freeport with 222 points. Rockford Guilford had 179 points, followed by the Morrison Fillies with 138 points. Congratulations to the members of the Fillies State Team: Amanda (50 Free, 200 free relay lead off leg), Kendra (200 free relay second leg), Jamie (200 free relay third leg), Rachel (50 free, 100 free, 200 free relay anchor leg), and also Michelle and Lindsey (alternates).
The State meet is at Evanston this year. These Fillies will be swimming on Friday for prelims. If they finish in the top 12, they will advance to finals on Saturday. After looking at all the results from the Illinois Swimming Sectionals, Amanda and Rachel look to have a pretty good chance at returning on Saturday.
Awesome job at Sectionals girls! (Hopefully after State we can come back to Morrison and go honking through town again!)
Have fun, and good luck at State!!

by larryg
2004-11-17 14:48:10