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Bison swim-dive finishes fine season at state
LINCOLN, Neb. — The visit to the 2019 Nebraska Championship Swim and Dive Meet this weekend may have been shorter than the McCook High School team would have liked, but they returned with great memories from the meet and the season.
Along with the four divers at Thursday’s dive championship, MHS sent a girls relay team for three events and an individual male diver to the championship meet with the preliminary races featuring 32 spots on Friday.
The top 16 finishers earned a spot to race on Saturday at the Deveny Sports Complex in Lincoln.
To qualify for the state meet, a swimmer must post a “qualifying” time as set by the Nebraska State Athletic Association, with no class divisions among the schools.
Swimmers can also make the meet if a “secondary” time is in the top 32 spots among their event.
So to send multiple swimmers is an accomplishment for MHS.
And the McCook’s girls’ relay has now made the cut several years in a row.
The relay team of seniors Laurel Schmidt, Mollie Tate and Becca Tietz and junior Candace Coleman qualified in three events, the 200 and 400 freestyle relays and the 200 medley relay.
Unfortunately, they didn’t make the top 16 in any of their events and their season came to end Friday morning.
The end of the season also means the end of long, successful careers for the three seniors. Laurel, Mollie and Becca all competed as swimmers growing up, swimming for the YMCA youth winter league as well as McCook’s summer swim team.
They have been part of relay teams which have broken several school records and made appearances at the state meet multiple times over their high school careers.
While it would have been great to swim on Saturday during the finals, they finished Friday with smiles on their faces and hugs from their many fans and family members.
Erik Graff was the lone male individual swimmer for McCook.
After diving Thursday evening at the state meet, Erik turned around Friday afternoon for his first appearance at the state swim meet in the 100 breaststroke.
For MHS Swim Coach Lori Jumps, it was the her first male swimmer in her 15-year coaching career and the first male MHS swimmer since 2001-02.
Erik’s visit was short and sweet and he summed up his race like this, “I entered the race 32nd. And I finished the race 32nd. I can’t complain too much.”
With the state meet in the rearview mirror, Jumps reflected on the meet and the season.
“All the relays performed well,” she said. “They did a great job on starts and exchanges, but had a couple slips on the turns.”
She noted that the wall at the Deveny Center and home to the Nebraska women’s swim team is pretty slippery, which hard to train for in their home pool at the McCook YMCA.
“But I am very proud of them and it was a great season for all of the swimmers, both those who made it to state as well as the entire team,” Jumps concluded.