PLEASANT HILL — Having a bit of fun at one of their favorite swim meets, NCMP’s Aquagirls broke two records and finished a solid second in the 2014 Southeast Polk Ram Relays Thursday.
“Ram Relays is one of our favorite meets and (Thursday) night did not disappoint,” said Sarah Patterson, NCMP head coach. “This is a relay meet, so we only had one entry per event, but it was doubled. Out of the three major relays, we got second to Ankeny in the 8x50 200 medley and the 8x50 200 freestyle, and saved our most dramatic performance for last — winning the 8x100 400 freestyle relay by a half a second.”
Patterson said the NCMP team of Sara Martin, Hannah Scotton, Madeline Webb, Elizabeth Myers, Emily Miller, Rachel Prendergast, Sydney Jenkins and Samantha Hedrick went back and forth with Ankeny the whole race. She said the crowd at the Southeast Polk pool “was going crazy.”
Hedrick went into the water for the NCMP anchor leg and the Aquagirls were a bit behind Ankeny, Patterson said.
“Samantha came blazing back with a split of 52.48 to out touch the final Ankeny swimmer. It was a super exciting race,” Patterson said. “Each girl split a season or personal best time and exhibited our season motto: The power of all of us.”
The 8x100 400 free relay was one of the two Ram Relay records the Aquagirls set Thursday. The other came in the 2x100 butterfly race. Scotton and Hedrick combined to win the varsity event in 2:00.80, breaking their own meet record from 2012 by about two seconds.
Ankeny won the Ram Relays with 196 points. NCMP piled up 169 points for second place, far ahead of host Southeast Polk with 126 points. Lewis Central was fourth with 124 points followed by Atlantic and Indianola with 69 points each and Des Moines East with 68 points.
“We were solid on a lot of our swims and times. It’s a tough time of year to flat out sprint with an extra edge because we are still in the training phase of our season. But, I was proud of the girls for kicking it in half way through the meet. The junior varsity swimmers will taper next week and will start to feel a bit rested. Most of the varsity swimmers will have to wait another week or so,” Patterson said.
The 200 freestyle relay of Madeline Webb and Rachel Prendergast placed third. Both of these girls turned in outstanding swims in both the 8x50 and the 8x100 relays, Patterson said. The NCMP individual medley duo of Martin and Hannah Rhoads placed fifth in a strong field with both girls hitting season bests of 2:24.74 and 2:22.79, respectively.
In both the junior varsity and varsity 2x50 the Aquagirls placed second. Alexis Stout and Kaelee Knoll were the junior varsity runner’s up, while Jenkins and Hedrick paired up for a second place finish varsity race.
Sierra Griffith and Sarah Prendergast won the junior varsity butterfly race. Alexis Stout and Webb combined to win the junior vanity 100 freestyle race, while Miller and Rachel Prendergast placed fifth in the varsity race.
Kira Hanson and Myers combined for fourth place in the varsity 500 freestyle race. Alexis DeVries and Jessica Zahn placed second in the junior varsity event.
NCMP placed third in both the backstroke relays with Knoll and Jenkins swimming a 2:11.70 time in the varsity race and Katherine Thorpe and Abby Jolivette pairing up for the junior varsity race.
NCMP’s varsity 100 breaststroke team of Griffith and Rhoads turned in a second-place finish by a finger-nail. Atlantic out touched NCMP — 2:25.35 to 2:25.39.
“Overall, we were happy with the meet. Ankeny definitely pushed us and is going to keep mentally pushing us as we head into the championship part of our season,” Patterson said.
The Aquagirls prepare for the North Central Swim Conference Championships Oct. 25 at the Newton YMCA. The diving event is at 10 a.m. at Grinnell and the swimming events are at Newton beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.