Local swimmers prepare for state
After finishing second in the WDA championships by three points, the Century girls swimming team is looking to repeat what happened last year and win a state championship.
The Patriots will be one of 19 teams competing in the state meet on Friday and Saturday at Hulbert Aquatic Center in West Fargo. The Patriots, who are 7-0 on the season and have placed within the top five of every meet they have competed in, will have 14 girls competing — 12 swimmers and one diver.
"It was a little heartbreaking," Century head coach Spencer Wheeling said of their razor-thin second-place finish in the WDA championships. "It kind of fired them up a little bit, they tried their best, didn't quite work out at WDA, but they're definitely going to give it their all again at state and try and make that one work out in their favor."
The West Region meet was a good measuring stick as Wheeling expects their toughest competition to come from mostly other West teams. Minot won the WDA title, and Wheeling expects it to be battle between Minot, Legacy, Century and one eastern team, Fargo Shanley, for the top four places.
"Between those four, I think only, probably only going to be like 30 points separating all of us," Wheeling said. "So it's going be a pretty tight, neat competition between us."
In a competition where the margin of victory will be so thin, Wheeling is hoping for his individual swimmers to slide up a few places to give them that edge. He is hoping to balance that ambition with also maintaining the number of points they scored in the WDA to get them that second-place finish.
"If we were three points short, if it just only takes a couple of girls, if you could move up one spot, that's that makes it up just right there," Wheeling said. "And that changes the result."
The state meet poses a unique challenge to high school swimmers. It is a two-day affair with prelims on Friday and the finals on Saturday. Only the top 16 swimmers in each event move on to Saturday's competition and only the top 8 compete for the top spots.
"There's a lot of times that will try and schedule meets, say, like back-to-back, like a Friday, Saturday, to kind of simulate this double competition," Wheeling said. "But yeah, that is kind of the one main difference. You have prelims and finals."
One edge that Century will have is experience. Last year, Century won state. Those remaining upperclassmen have been able to help tell the younger swimmers what to expect for such an intimidating competition.
"Once the athletes have been there, it they know what to expect, then they kind of know the energy, the flow of the meet, all of that, so that that just kind of helps take that edge off a little bit," Wheeling said. "So the older athletes can pass their knowledge down to them."
Of those older athletes, Century only had one senior qualify, dual-sport athlete, Kylie Duchsherer. Duchsherer, who also plays golf for Century, had half the time to train and qualify but did both. Duchsherer will be competing in the 100-yard butterfly, 100 backstroke, and was a member of the state champion 200 medley relay team last year. This will be her final state meet.
"She really gets to start her training about halfway through our season. But she's always been able to find a way to try and sneak into those top eight," Wheeling said. "That's kind of still her goal this year is, is to get those top eights and just try and get us as many points as she can."
While Duchsherer is the only senior coming in, one group that has shown immense growth over the course of the season are the lower classmen.
"Last year, we had quite a few of them, make it to the state meet, but they didn't quite make it to the second day," Wheeling said. "They've really have grown in that sense of just rising up, knowing that they have a job. Maybe grow up a little quicker than they wanted to, as far as trying to get up there and compete with all the high-end competition."
Another way the whole team has grown this past season is their focus.
"Overall, trying to just stay focused is big thing," Wheeling said. "They've always been a very determined and focused team but that's really has amplified here in the last couple weeks."
This Century team is one of the smaller groups, and Wheeling says that makes people underestimate them this year.
"This is one of our smallest teams, I guess we've had in the last, six, seven years," Wheeling said. "And so they know that sometimes at these bigger meets, we might not look like we're a top contender, but at the end of the day, they know that the talent is there."
They are expecting their top individual performances to be in the 200 IM, 100 fly and 500 free. Wheeling thinks they have a decent chance of getting top-eight finishes in those categories. Their 200 freestyle relay team is currently ranked second and will also be an area that the Patriots will look to have success in.
"We're ready, and I know they're super excited," Wheeling said. "We know we've all trained and worked hard and they're just ready to see that hard work pay off. We're just excited to have some great competition, and it's really fun to see the state meet be this close."
The state meet kicks off at 12:30 p.m. with diving preliminaries. Century, Legacy, Bismarck, and Mandan will have students competing. Bismarck's Madeline VerDouw is the top seed in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke events.
Reach sports reporter Maeve Hushman at 701-250 8244 or .
