2022 NLC Pre-Lims

Thursday night (January 13th) was the girls' Northern Lakes Conference meet pre-lims.  

This meant that all eight teams in the conference would compete against one another in each event and the top 16 swimmers in each event would move on to the championship meet this coming Saturday (January 15th).  We have been swimming at this pool for club and high school events for years and both girls love the speed of the pool and the feel of the water.  They usually get really excited about meets that are hosted at this natatorium.  It really is a beautiful facility!

Noel and I arrived about 5:45 and we were able to get settled into the front row of the spectator's area right before the school introductions and the National Anthem.  Then at 6:00, the event started with the first relay, which was the Medley relay.  Marissa did not swim it in the preliminaries but she is listed on the roster and will most likely swim in the championship race on Saturday in that event.

Marissa did swim in the second event, which was the 200 freestyle.  She was in the second heat and finished with a 2:08.75.  That was about two full seconds slower than her seed time but it was still fast enough to get her into the championship heat on Saturday.  She will go into the event seeded 7th and will be guaranteed a spot on the podium as she cannot finish lower than 8th place overall.

Marissa would come back later to swim the 100 freestyle where she entered the race seeded 11th out of 21 swimmers.  This race was loaded with super fast swimmers and despite the fact that she swam faster last evening than she did last year (and placed 6th overall last year), this year her time of 58.58 was only good enough for an 11th place finish, which will put her in the consolation race.  

In addition to swimming in the 200 medley relay, Marissa is also on the roster to swim in the championship heat of the 200 freestyle relay on Saturday, which will give her a very full day.

After the 200 freestyle, Morgan was up to swim her first event which was the 200 IM.  This is an event that she really likes but she has been stuck at a 2:38 for quite a while and has been frustrated with that.  I think that she went into this event seeded 14th.

Morgan blew all of us away (including herself!) with her first swim of the evening by taking off over 9 seconds on her swim and finishing with a new  PR of 2:29.71!!  It wasn't enough to get her into the championship heat in this event (she is seeded 9th, just outside of the top eight), but she didn't care.  She looked up and saw her time on the scoreboard and then she just got a smile on her face that spread from ear to ear.  She knew that she had just swam a great race and she was thrilled.

Shortly after that race, Morgan would swim the 100 butterfly where she was once again seeded 13th or 14th in our very talented conference.  Once again she would impress all of us with another great swim and another PR.  This time she entered the race with a seed time of 1:12 and would finish at 1:08.8 and an 8th place which is fast enough for a championship race and a guaranteed podium finish.

Morgan is slated to swim in the 200 freestyle relay with Marissa on Saturday.  She was one of the swimmers last night posting a season's best 50 split with a time of 28.8.

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All in all, the Lady Tigers posted a lot of PR's last night and showed that despite being seeded 4th as a team in this year's conference, they aren't giving up without a fight.  I'm excited to see how they come back and swim on Saturday.