Girls swimming: Ready for regionals

OTTUMWA — Whether it’s the campus of the University of Iowa or a natatorium in the suburbs of Chicago.

For swimmers on Monday, Mike McWilliams Pool served as one of the final stops on the road to qualifying for a trip to state. As a result, many of the pool records and one of Ottumwa High School’s program records were challenged during the final home meet of the season for the Bulldogs.

“I think we’ve got a lot of momentum now going into regionals,” Ottumwa head girls swimming coach Joe Gevock said. “I think it’s kind of contagious. When a chunk of girls start doing good, it kind of motivates and inspires the other girls to step up their game and it’s led to a lot of great swims over the past few meets.”

Ottumwa outscored three of the four teams in the meet, outscoring Williamsburg (93-62) and Centerville (97-31) as well as winning over Illinois high school West Central. Oskaloosa got the best of all four opponents, including a 110-59 win over the Bulldogs giving the Indians 15 duals wins this season and 76 overall dual wins in their five seasons as a program.

Penelope Morrison, a YMCA teammate of several Bulldog swimmers, closed out the night for Oskaloosa anchoring the Indians to a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:12.93. Morrison also anchored Oskaloosa’s win in the 200-yard freestyle relay and broke six minutes in the 500-yard freestyle winning the longest race of the night in 5:59.71.

“I hadn’t swam that race since I was 12-years-old,” Morrison said. “I was kind of curious how I would do in that. I almost broke my sister’s (Daphanie’s) school record.”

Morrison’s former Ottumwa YMCA Hurricane teammate, Piper Gevock, nearly closed out her final home meet of her sophomore season with a record swim of her own. After once again coming within two seconds of the pool record in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing the race in 1:02.83, Gevock nearly tracked down Willow Larsen’s OHS program record in the 100-yard breaststroke finishing the race in 1:10.87 just 1.02 seconds shy of the four-year program mark.

“It felt a lot better than it had all season,” Piper Gevock said. “I was a little disappointed (to not break the record), but also happy when I saw it. There were definitely some mixed emotions with a time like that.”

Centerville closed out their final regular season dual with a win over West Central, closing the night finishing fourth in the 400-yard freestyle in 5:20.24. The Redettes were came into the meet after a successful day at the North Central Conference meet in Grinnell last Friday that included personal bests in seven different swims.

“I think everyone was kind of on the rebound after that type of performance,” Centerville head girls swimming coach Amber White said. “Everybody was kind of geared up for that. We’ve had one school record broken this year (Julianna Sturtz in the 100-yard backstroke). Adalyn (Swaby) had a personal best in this meet in the 100-yard freestyle (1:10.79). We’re going into regionals with a chance to get a medal in a relay, which is something we did last year.”

Ottumwa, Centerville and Oskaloosa will all swim together at Johnston in one of Iowa’s six regional high school meets on Nov. 7. Becca Hinshaw, the lone representative in Monday’s meet from Illinois high school West Central, also geared up for her state qualifier next weekend by nearly taking down a pair of pool records in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle finishing the 50 in 24.74 seconds and the 100 in 54.53.

“I’m qualified for state in the 50 each of the past three years and I’ve improved in my state finish every single year,” Hinshaw said. “My hope is to finish in the finals, which is the top 16. I went from finishing 40th in the state as a freshman to finishing 18th last year.”

Besides the near-record swims throughout the meet, Ottumwa honored Olivia Hoskins as the lone senior on the team. Ironically, it Hoskins’ younger sister that stole the show as Mackenzie Hoskins winning the 100-yard backstroke in 1:14.09 while also swimming personal bests in both the 100-yard freestyle (1:04.63) and a 50-yard split of 32.36 seconds helping the Bulldogs win the opening 200-yard medley relay in 2:10.53.

“It’s a really good feeling to see my sister succeed and do wonderful things,” Olivia Hoskins said. “She gets to see things I wish I could do in the moment.”