After more than three weeks of exhausting drudgery, swimming dozens of miles in the high school pool without a meet, Litchfield swimmers are more than ready to compete.
And, more than just compete, a group of Dragons seniors hope to do something that hasn’t been accomplished in nearly a decade by getting an individual or relay team to the state meet when they swim in the Section 3A Meet Thursday and Saturday at Willmar High School pool.
“I think some girls are just trying to push through section, you know, but we really want to have one more big, last hurrah, I guess you could say,” senior Ellie Brown said. “Not just for us, but for the program. We haven’t had anybody there for a long time, and so it’d be nice to get a little recognition for the program.”
Qualifying for state is a tall task, especially in what many coaches call the toughest section in the state. But Litchfield has swimmers within striking distance of automatic qualifying times. It comes down to having their best swims in the biggest meet of the year.
“I feel like the girls have been putting in the effort all season,” first-year head coach Ashlynn Mattson said. “I’m hoping, thinking, that I’ve done everything right, where it’s going to shine through at sections.
“It was a good season overall for the girls,” she added. “So yeah, we’re feeling prepared and excited to just see what we can do at sections.”
Litchfield will bring 16 swimmers to the Section 3A meet, led by a core of seniors who have been the heart of the team the past two seasons.
Along with Brown, Adallia Bruning, Adeline Lundin, Emily Peterson and Grace Schmidt will carry the Dragons’ biggest hopes for section meet success, and potential for state meet qualifiers.
Brown will swim the open 50- and 100-yard freestyle, in addition to being a member of the 200 freestyle relay and the 200 medley relay.
Bruning will swim the open 100 and 200 freestyle, as well as being on the 200 and 400 freestyle relay.
Lundin has the open 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke, and the 200 freestyle and medley relay on her schedule.
Peterson will swim the 100 breaststroke and 50 freestyle, as well as the 200 freestyle and medley relay.
Schmidt will swim the legs of the medley relay and 400 freestyle relay, in addition to 100 butterfly.
They’ve all been in big situations like this before. Four of them — Brown, Bruning, Lundin and Peterson — competed in the section finals last year, earning at least one medal each.
Lundin, Bruning and Brown team up with now-graduated Alex Carlson to finish sixth in the 200 freestyle relay last season, missing the state cut by three seconds. Lundin, Peterson, Brown and Carlson took seventh at last year’s section meet in the medley relay, missing state cut by four seconds. And Brown, Bruning, Lundin and Carlson finished fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.
A white board at the LHS pool has had a note on it since the first week of the season that has driven members of the 200 freestyle relay team — Brown, Bruning, Lundin and Peterson — goal times for each leg that could get the group to state, and set a school record at the same time.
“They’re somewhat realistic. We just have to pull together at the right time,” Bruning said of the relay teams’ chances of state qualifying. “We haven’t been able to do that (so far this season). I think for individual events there’s a decent amount of people that have a shot.”
Lundin said she started the note as a challenge to herself.
“When we were looking at the board and comparing what we had (for times), I was like, ‘Well, why not try and break a record and go to state all at one time,’” Lundin said. “Sending (a relay team) to state means that we have more girls going to state than we’ve had in the last I don’t know how many years. That would be pretty special.”
Lundin carries the team’s best hope of an individual qualifier. She missed a state qualifying time in the backstroke by just six-tenths of a second last year. The state qualifying time has increased this year — to 1:01.76 — the exact time that Lundin swam in last year’s section finals.
So far this season, Lundin has been around 1:04 in the backstroke, so she will need a time drop of a few seconds to meet the standard. That’s not insignificant, and yet, it’s something the Dragons senior has demonstrated she can do — especially with strategic training, or “taper,” that builds to those high miles, then drops to fewer miles but added resistance.
“A little bit of taper is really effective for Addie,” Mattson said. “Actually, she’s at a better spot than she was last season. Last season, she was hitting 1:06-1:05. So the fact that she hit 1:04 is actually a good thing to know that she’s even closer to that goal than she was last year.”
Lundin said she’s taking nothing for granted, because she’s been in this similar situation since her freshman year.
“I swam a 1:04 for my 100 backstroke (as a freshman), making the fastest time I’d ever swam in my career,” she said. “My goal right after my freshman year was going to state, like was just three seconds away. What’s the big deal? This is the last chance. You can’t build it up that much … just to keep working your butt off and not go.
“But (going to state) is not the complete goal,” she added. “I think the final goal for me is just to finish a good senior season and be happy with how I finish and the team finishes.”
In the end, that seems to be what has motivated the senior group most — doing something that can leave a legacy on which the program can continue to grow and improve.
“I try not to put pressure on them,” Mattson said of her coaching approach heading into sections. “I try to make it realistic for them. Like, ‘This is something you can achieve,’ and give them that opportunity to at least see it and push themselves for it. They know what’s possible.”
