Swimmers post personal bests at Park Rapids meet
NewsSports | Published on September 27, 2021 at 9:15pm GMT+0000 | Author: Chad Koenen
0The Yellowjacket girls made a great showing in Park Rapids on Thursday night. Park Rapids pulled away in the end, but the Perham/New York Mills swimmers didn’t let that stop them from setting some new PR’s. The team saw many season and all-time personal records, with a total of 20 PR’s, as well as eight new section cuts.
A few of of the younger girls swam new events for the very first time. Eighth grader Madison Lohse tried the 200 free, and seventh graders Megan Galbrecht and Jaelyn Rodewald attempted the 200 IM. Galbrecht also swam her first official 100 free, and Lohse and Rodewald tried the 100 breast for the first time.
In diving, sophomores Brittney Lorentz and Avery McAllister both set new high scores, finishing first and second, respectively. Lorentz improved her score by over 10 points.
A couple girls added one section time to their times. Junior Lucie Meyer qualified in the 200 IM for the first time. Eighth grader Maggie Vickmark made it in the 100 fly and junior Kaydi Mursu qualified in the 500 free.
Junior Lucy Schultz had a big night as she cut 5 seconds to qualify in the 200 IM, and 2 seconds in the 100 back for a section time. She also qualified in the 100 free as the lead-off for the A 400 free relay team.
Eighth grader Taylor Ziemke also had one heck of a night. She dropped 19 seconds in the 200 free to qualify for sections and set a new middle school record of 2:14.45. The previous record of 2:17.38 was set by senior Irene Mursu in 2017. This is Ziemke’s fourth new record this season. She also cut a whopping 38 seconds in the 500 free, missing the middle school record by 0.12 seconds.
Her new time qualifies for sections, which means that Ziemke has qualified in all eight individual swimming events, earning her an award that the team calls the Cullendorfer. (Irene Mursu finished her Cullendorfer in Thief River Falls on Monday.)
The team had five more swimmers finish their Iron Woman in this meet: Galbrecht, Kaydi Mursu, Schultz, Vickmark and Ziemke. So far this year, 10 swimmers have successfully completed eight individual events at some point in the season.
Head coach Jensen Grimley said all in all, the girls had a fantastic meet last night, after a long week. The team is looking forward to resting up over the weekend, and then holding their senior and parent night in Detroit Lakes on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m.