by Nick Meinders

On Nov. 3, a group of NCMP Aquagirls traveled to Marshalltown to participate in the 2018 Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State swimming meet. The Aquagirls qualified in six different events. They qualified in three relays and in three individual events. The relays they qualified in were the 200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle, and 400-yard freestyle. The individual events were the 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, and the 100-yard breaststroke. PCM’s senior Alex Inskeep was a part of all three relay teams.

All the relays Inskeep participated in gained new season-best times by dropping over one second or more off each relay. Going into the event, NCMP’s 200-yard relay team made up by seniors Lakin Jenkins, Lindsey Blommers, Inskeep and freshman Hannah Nedder was seeded 15th with a season-best time of 1:52.75. The team swam a new season best by more than two seconds earning them a 12th place finish out of 32 competing teams. Six events later, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Blommers, Jenkins, Inskeep, and Nadders swam another season best by dropping more than a second and a half producing a time of 1:42.10. That time was good enough for an 18th place finish. In the last event of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay, NCMP’s team that consisted of junior Erika Van Sickle, sophomore Natalie Boll, Jenkins, and Inskeep earned a time of 3:50.57, good enough for a 26th place finish.  On the individual side of the meet, only one swimmer from NCMP made it past the prelims and that was Blommers. She placed fifth overall in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.47.