Aquagirls ready for another strong year in pool

A deep crop of seniors, a junior who qualified individually for the state meet and two standout sophomores will give the NCMP Aquagirls a head start on another successful season in the pool.

NCMP is seeking its fifth straight Little Hawkeye Conference title and a group of 10 seniors is jumping in head first to lead the way.

“We have a great group of returning kids,” said NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson, who begins her 28th season in charge of the program. “I feel good about having those kids back. I need to see a little more training. We have a good squad with decent depth. We’ll see where we can fill some holes from last year.”

Junior Hannah Nedder is back after qualifying for the state meet individually in the 100 butterfly. She also swam on all three relays that qualified for the state meet.

NCMP will have 10 of the 12 swimmers from those three state qualifying relay teams back this season. Sophomore Lillie Ray also swam on all three relays while sophomore Maylei Ruggles was part of the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

Juniors Maggie Garrett and Lauren Zaabel were each on a state qualifying freestyle relay last year.

“The goal is always to get all three relays to the state meet,” said Patterson, who begins her 30th year in the district. “We should have a very good medley relay and we should have strong freestyle relays. I’m excited to see who steps up and excited to see my JV kids continue to work hard as a group.”

Nedder swam in her second straight state meet in the 100 butterfly last year and finished 14th. The medley relay team which included Nedder, Ruggles and Ray also were 14th.

Nedder, Ruggles, Garrett and Ray finished 16th in the 200 freestyle relay and Nedder, Ray and Zaabel were 19th in the 400 freestyle relay.

NCMP won its fourth straight LHC title last year, defeating Indianola by 92 points. Patterson hopes a fifth title is in the team’s near future but also wants to regain the championship trophy in the North Central Swim Conference, where the Aquagirls finished second a year ago.

“I look to the seniors every year to help us out because there are only two of us and 36 of them,” Patterson said. “It’s amazing to watch them grow up and rise to the challenge.”

Zaabel, Ray, Nedder and senior diver Kenleigh Jack all were LHC individual champions last year.

Jack is back as the top diver this year but her season is up in the air because the Grinnell indoor pool is not yet open. Jack finished 14th at regionals last year.

Senior Jerica Dafflitto is the team’s other diver.

“Our divers are currently training outdoors at Grinnell. If the Grinnell College pool doesn’t open we’ll have to scramble to find somewhere to go,” Patterson said. “It’s a TBD for now unfortunately.”

The Aquagirls are a bit behind to start the season thanks in part to the major storm that went through Newton a few weeks back. They missed about five practices in all.

“We’ll try to make it up and catch up,” Patterson said. “Swimming is training. So we are a little behind. I added some more pool time, but this year is going to be what it is because we just don’t know how it’s going to go.”

While the storm affected NCMP’s training in the pool, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been a huge issue yet. And Patterson feels lucky to coach a sport that doesn’t have a lot of protocols.

“We are lucky. There is no evidence that COVID spreads in water,” Patterson said. “You can’t wear masks in a pool so we don’t have as many protocols. We don’t touch the same ball either.”