Ames women swimming group takes house one other regional title

AMES — The Ames women swimming and diving group can be competing on the IGHSAU state meet in each occasion following one other victorious exhibiting on the regional women swimming meet on the Dan Flannery Pool on Nov. 8.

The Little Cyclones gained 4 occasions and positioned second 5 instances in scoring 476 factors to beat Linn-Mar’s rating of 414.5 for the regional championship.

“The girls knocked it out of the park,” mentioned Ames coach Joe Fisher. “Every once in a while you’re lucky enough to have one of those meets where at the start of the meet somebody goes off for a great time and the rest of the team sees that. Then they get up and go off for a great time. It was so neat to watch the girls get into it. I don’t think we had a single swimmer that didn’t have a lifetime best today.”

Ellie McCorkle and Alex Powers have been the 2 standout people for Ames at regionals.

McCorkle gained the 500-yard freestyle race and he or she took second within the 200 freestyle with respective instances of 5 minutes, 0.48 seconds and 1:50.86. Her 500 freestyle time is the quickest qualifying time within the state and he or she ranks second within the 200 freestyle, simply behind Sioux City West’s Natalie Patee, who edged her on the regional meet with a time of 1:50.80.

The 200 has been McCorkle’s prime occasion, however she confirmed she has what it takes to be elite within the long-distance race.

“I think it goes very well with me training for the 200,” mentioned McCorkle. “You have to keep going forward. You can’t stop. Get into a rhythm, and once you find that rhythm there’s just nothing slowing you down. You just go.”

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Powers gained the 100 breaststroke with the third-fastest qualifying time at 1:04.83 and he or she additionally took first within the 50 freestyle with a qualifying time of 24.60.

“This meet was very surreal,” mentioned Powers. “It’s the first time in four years me and Joe decided not to taper me for regionals and only taper me for state. We knew the risk coming into this meet. All the hard work that we put into this really did pay off, and not just for me. The entire team swam season bests, lifetime bests. I could not be more proud of these girls and what this means for our team.” 

McCorkle and Powers each helped Ames qualify for state with the fourth-best qualifying time within the 200 freestyle relay. They teamed up with Jaylyn Light and Mady Hermsen to swim a 1:38.97, which was second to Sioux City West’s 1:38.50 on the regional meet.

McCorkle additionally helped Ames qualify with the fourth-fastest time within the 400 freestyle after the Little Cyclones swam a 3:38.15 to put second to Sioux City West’s 3:34.71. McCorkle swam the primary leg, and he or she was adopted by Lily Van Der Linden, Miah Mogard and Light.

Mogard gained the 100 freestyle on the Ames regional meet with a time of 55.05, which ranks seventeenth amongst state qualifiers, and it was simply sufficient to edge out the 55.09 time by Perry’s Aleah Karolus on the regional meet.

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The different state qualifiers for Ames embody Van Der Linden and Light within the 200 freestyle with respective instances of 1:56.03 and 1:59.93, Hermsen within the 200 IM with a 2:15.85 exhibiting and Addyson Binkowski and Mogard within the 50 freestyle with respective instances of 25.19 and 25.36. Aubrie Hanson and Binkowski certified within the 100 butterfly with respective 1:01.46 and 1:03.08 efforts, Van Der Linden made it the five hundred freestyle with a 5:14.17 exhibiting, Light within the 100 backstroke (1:00.22) and Hermsen (1:10.14) and Ali Doolittle (1:10.65) within the 100 breaststroke.

The Ames 200 medley relay group of Binkowski, Powers, Hanson and Hermsen positioned second on the regional meet and certified for state in 1:53.19.

Ames had two divers qualify for state.

Lucy York certified in the course of the common season and Molly Engelman certified on the regional diving meet in Johnston on Nov. 6. York had the Twentieth-best qualifying rating of three:43.5 and Engelman’s rating of 342.9 ranks twenty first.

Joe Randleman covers highschool sports activities for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman