2004 Year in Review

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The Fillies Swim Team

Fillies Invade State Waters

By: Lindsey Smith
In their final swim meet as Morrison High School Swimming Fillies, Rachel Fedyk and Amanda “Smiley” Smith took to the pool for the last time together. Most of the team was with them. And, boy, did we have fun up there! From seeing the Illinois Men’s Football team in our hotel to riding the glass elevator, to the T-shirts that we made, the fun never ended…almost!

Rachel and Amanda were the first Fillies to compete in the State meet. In the 50-yard freestyle, Amanda was in the earliest heat, heat 6. She swam a good race, keeping within a second and a half in her heat. Amanda’s final time was 24.90, still under the State time. Her time put her in a four-way tie for 29th. Ties are very rare in swimming, because the time is measured down to the hundredth.
Rachel also gained a fraction of a second to stop the clock at 24.19. Rachel finished 8th in this event. The fastest Finals round advancing time was 23.48. Rachel swam fastest enough to make it back to the two finals heats of six swimmers each on Saturday. There were 45 swimmers in this event.
These two seniors from Morrison were one pair of under ten pairs from the same school to advance to State. Amanda and Rachel were the fourth fastest “one-two” punch in the State. The other pairs came from the Chicago areas.
After the 100-yard butterfly came the 100-yard freestyle, Rachel’s second and final individual meet of the day. Rachel swam the race well. She seemed to fall behind in the turns, but she quickly caught up on the straight aways. Rachel was again in the final heat, where she stopped the clock at 54.85. She finished in 33rd.
Next, there was about 45 minutes worth of 500-yard freestyle races, each race taking just over five minutes. Then there came the 200-yard freestyle relay. Kendra Kuehl, Jamie Grau, Amanda, and Rachel were the Fillies swimming in the second heat, lane number 5. Amanda would lead off the race with a 25.11 split in her last High School 50 sprint. She had about a one second lead over the entire heat to give to Kendra. Kendra lost a smidgen of water to the others in the pool, but she still swam a 27. Her official split was 27.03. Jamie dove into State waters even with all the other lanes. Jamie sprinted to another 26 split. Actually, it was the highest 26 split that’s possible (26.99). Jamie reached into for the touch pads for Rachel. Rachel had an awesome split of 22.98. 22.98 would have won the 50-yard free, but this time it only moved the Fillies up from last in their heat to fourth.
On Saturday, Rachel came back for her last 50-yard sprint of her high school season. Rachel was in the first heat of two on Finals day, where she was seeded at 8th. Because Rachel was in the first heat, the best placing that she could get was 6th, but the worst that she could do was 12th. Rachel swam a 24.351 in her first High School Finals appearance, earning her tenth in the State. She just missed ninth place by .04 seconds.
Something that some of the Filly swimmers found to be kind of funny was that the Fillies finally beat Sterling at a meet! Christina Yemm finished in 12th place for Sterling in the 200-yard I.M. (Congrats Christina!), giving Sterling one point at the State meet. Since Rachel placed 10th in the 50, the Fillies scored 3 points at the State meet.
Congratulations to all the swimmers who qualified to State. Congrats especially to our seniors on achieving their goals for their senior year! We’ll miss all three of you!

by larryg
2004-11-22 22:41:25