McCook swim teams continue improvement

Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Lucas Jumps of McCook takes a breath during his leg in the boys 400-yard freestyle relay Feb. 4 during high school swimming and diving competition at the McCook YMCA pool. Jumps and his teammates, Matt Collicott, Michael Sides and Dalton Bundy, had the second-fastest time in the event at 4 minutes, 35.6 seconds.

Improvement is the one-word mantra of the McCook High School swimming and diving team.

McCook is the smallest high school in enrollment in the Cornhusker State to field a prep swimming and diving program. The Bison squads just don't have the numbers to compete with the state's Class A and larger Class B squads. So head coach Lori Jumps stresses individual improvement for her competitors.

Jumps has been very pleased with the progress shown by most of her squad this season. Almost all the McCook competitors continue to drop their times in the swim events and raise their scores on the diving board. That happened again Friday, Feb. 4, when the Bison boys and girls entertained North Platte and Hastings in a triangular meet at the Ed Thomas YMCA pool.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Kelsey Woitaszewski of McCook swims the breast stroke leg in the girls 200-yard medley relay at a triangular swimming and diving meet at the McCook YMCA pool Feb. 4. Kelsey and her teammates Jordan May, Erin Premer and Madison Shepard, had the second-fastest time in the girls 200 medley relay at 2 minutes, 19.2 seconds.

The McCook girls won a dual meet, as the Bison girls topped Hastings, 52-21. North Platte beat the McCook girls, 60-36, and the Bison boys came out on the short end of both scores, as North Platte won 77-16, and Hastings defeated the Bison boys, 55-26.

North Platte also beat Hastings in both divisions by scores of 69-32 (boys) and 74-17 (girls).

Coach Jumps said the season-long improvements by her swimmers continued Friday.

"We're still improving," Jumps said. "This week we tapered, where we don't swim as many yards (in practices). They are all improving very well. We had a lot of PRs (personal records).

"Emily Wood PR'ed in every event she swam, so she's going really good, and as a senior that's good to see. Matt Collicott did great. He got disqualified (in a relay for a false start), and that's kind of sad. But he's going to do awesome. He's within reach of breaking the school record (in the 50-yard freestyle)."

Collicott had the fastest time in the boys 50 free Friday at 23.90. He was clocked in 24.60 seconds in the same race last week.

"He's dropped a lot, and hopefully we can get that dropped even more," Coach Jumps said.

Collicott has a secondary state qualifying time in the 50 free. Coach Jumps said each event at state will have at least 24 competitors. The automatic (fastest) qualifying times will all advance to state. If there are not 24 automatic qualifying times in any event, the remainder of the 24 spots will be filled by the top secondary qualifying marks.

Jumps said Collicott, a sophomore, would likely need an automatic qualifying time in the 50 free to advance to state.

In addition to Collicott's fastest boys 50 freestyle mark, McCook individuals had several standout performances in Friday's meet.

Erin Premer turned in the fastest time in the girls 50-yard freestyle field with her time of 27.90 seconds.

Emily Wood had the top time in the girls 100 freestyle at 1:05.20, winning by over a second. Wood also had the second-fastest time in the girls 200 freestyle at 2:26.80.

Michael Sides also turned in the fastest time in the boys 100 free at 59.10, over a second faster than his closest competitor.

McCook's girls also won the 400 freestyle relay, as the quartet of Wood, Jordan May, Madison Shepard and Premer combined for a time of 4:29.90, nearly 13 seconds faster than North Platte.

Michelle Tinglum won the girls one-meter diving event with a score of 141.85 points on six dives. Teammate Amanda Fuchuck was third at 134.20, and Becca Sehnert finished fourth at 133.40.

Austin Molcyk placed third in boys diving with a score of 147.60 points.

Other strong efforts for McCook included:

The girls 200 medley relay team of May, Kelsey Woitaszewski, Premer and Shepard with the second-fastest time of 2:19.20; Shepard finishing fourth (30.70) and Sehnert fifth (33.49) in the girls 50 free; Miranda Wordekemper, fourth in the 100 freestyle (1:16.16); Colton Brown, fourth in the boys 100 freestyle (1:09.30); and the girls 200 freestyle relay team of Wood, May, Shepard and Premer finishing with the second-fastest time (2:14.30).

The McCook divers also competed at Kearney Saturday.

Becca Sehnert led the Bison with a runner-up finish in the girls division. Sehnert totaled 253.50 points on 11 dives. Amanda Fuchuck placed third at 243.70.

In the boys division, Austin Molcyk finished sixth with a score of 246.25.

GNAC meet at Scottsbluff

The McCook squads have one last chance to earn state meet qualifying marks in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference swimming and diving meet. The GNAC meet will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12, at the Scottsbluff High School pool. The boys and girls diving competition will begin Friday at 4 p.m. CST. The boys and girls swimming events will be held Saturday starting at noon CST.

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