Published: September 03, 2008 11:20 am            

River Queen swimmers open season with win

CLINTON — Placing her swimmers in the right events might play the biggest role in the success of the Clinton High School girls swimming team's season, but coach June Wilden apparently had the pieces in the right spots in her first attempt at constructing a lineup this season.

“We're not as deep as last year, so we're going to have to make some strategic placings to compete,” Wilden said.

The River Queens opened the season Tuesday night with a 100-82 victory against visiting Tipton in a dual meet at the Clinton High pool.

We won; that's the big part,” Clinton's Larissa Wilden said.

“It was a solid performance by everybody,” coach June Wilden said. “For the first meet, we did really, really well. The older kids are good leaders for the younger kids. The junior-senior leadership started to show.”

Seniors Taylor Rippon and Larissa Wilden said that was important for the team.

“We lost a few good girls (from last year), but it's nothing the freshmen and sophomores can't cover up,” Rippon said.

“It's going to take time, but when they become seniors, they're going to be good,” Wilden added.

Rippon and the two Wildens agreed that Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley again are the teams to beat this fall in the Mississippi Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs ended Pleasant Valley's three-year reign as conference champions last year. June Wilden also listed Muscatine, Davenport Central and Davenport West as other teams to beat.

Regardless of where the River Queens stack up in the MAC, Larissa Wilden was happy that they opened the season against a nonconference opponent.

“It's nice not to have an opening meet against a conference team,” she said. “We can see where to place people for conference meets.”

Despite being the smallest school in the state with a swimming program, Tipton was a formidable first opponent. The Tigers finished 25th in the state last year, and senior Alicia Goetz placed ninth in the state in the 50-yard freestyle last year and 18th in the 100 freestyle. She claimed both individual wins for Tipton on Tuesday, taking the 100 freestyle in 56.93 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 1 minute, 9.51 seconds. She also anchored the winning 200 freestyle relay unit that includes three of the girls who helped the Tigers to a 14th-place finish at state last season.

However, Clinton won nine of the 12 varsity events.

“Everyone was on the ball tonight,” Rippon said.

Rippon won her specialty, the 100-yard butterfly; Wilden won the 50 freestyle; Katie Spooner won the diving; and Kate Kaster (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) and Libby Hess (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke) were double winners for the River Queens.

“Libby Hess swam her career best in the breaststroke by two seconds,” June Wilden said. “I hope that means there are better things to come.”

Hess, who placed 22nd in the 100 breaststroke as a sophomore at last year's state meet, finished in 1 minute, 10.16 seconds, more than 6 _ seconds ahead of runner-up Mackenzie Moritz of Tipton. She and Moritz also finished 1-2 in the 200 individual medley, with Hess winning by more than 15 seconds in 2:23.28.

Larissa Wilden and Rippon are hoping to enjoy the same type of success this season in their top events.

“I want to go under 1 minute in the 100 fly, get the record and, eventually, get to state,” Rippon said. Her opening time in the event in which she placed 23rd at state last year was 1:06.19, about three seconds slower than her career best. Michelle Larson set the school record of 1:00.90 in 1999.

Wilden is hoping to shave more than a second off her winning time Tuesday of 26.92 in the 50 freestyle.

“Supposedly, the 200 in track equates to the 50 freestyle in swimming, so I'd like to get to 25,” said Wilden, who said her personal record in the track 200 was 25.3, while her best in the 50 freestyle was in the low 26s. Larson holds the school record in that event, too, in 25.17.

Wilden and Rippon also have high hopes in the 200 medley relay. They helped set the freshman-sophomore record of 1:59.75, and they would like to get their names on the record board in the varsity event as well. They teamed with Hess and Alyssa Erling to win the event in 2:00.57 on Tuesday. All but Erling were on Clinton's 21st-place unit at last year's state meet. But, their time was more than four seconds better than Tipton's top unit that included three of the four girls who placed 17th in the event at last year's state meet.

“It would be nice to get under 2 minutes,” Wilden said. “Libby is going to help us out in the breaststroke.”

Rippon, Wilden, Hess and Katie Stanley combined to win the 400 freestyle relay in 4:03.03 for Clinton's other win.





Girls swimming

Clinton 100, Tipton 82

200-yard medley relay - 1. Clinton (Larissa Wilden, Libby Hess, Taylor Rippon, Alyssa Erling) 2:00.57; 2. Tipton (Amanda Gavin, Mackenzie Moritz, Danielle Stepleton, Alicia Goetz) 2:04.73; 3. Tipton (Christine Fox, Sarah Becker, Micki Kruse, Kirsten Rabedeaux) 2:20.11; 4. Tipton (Aubrey Gaul, Emily Leff, Megan Hein, Brittney Miller) 2:29.27; 5. Clinton (Katie Spooner, Laura Callan, Breezy Mussman, Natasha Kerr) 2:31.47.

200 freestyle - 1. Kate Kaster (C) 2:17.85; 2. Sally Weets (T) 2:33.55; 3. Gaul (T) 2:41.20; 4. Alyssa Wells (C) 2:50.48; 5. Rachel Harden (C) 2:59.54; 6. Mandi Gregorcyk (TP) 3:11.10.

200 individual medley - 1. Hess (C) 2:23.28; 2. Moritz (T) 2:38.52; 3. Erling (C) 2:45.57; 4. Kruse (T) 2:52.06.

50 freestyle - 1. Wilden (C) 26.92; 2. Katie Stanley (C) 28.60; 3. Stepleton (T) 30.84; 4. Fox (T) 31.00; 5. Wells (C) 31.88; 6. Ellen Penningroth (T) 33.12.

Diving - 1. Spooner (C) 129.35; 2. Callan (C) 128.30; 3. Fox (T) 127.75; 4. Kerr (C) 80.00.

!00 butterfly - 1. Rippon (C) 1:06.19; 2. Wilden (C) 1:10.57; 3. Hein (T) 1:26.91; 4. Kendra Evers (C) 1:33.36.

100 freestyle - 1. Goetz (T) 56.93; 2. Erling (C) 1:04.45; 3. Kaitlyn McKinney (T) 1:04.64; 4. Gaul (T) 1:12.80; 5. Taylor Gutierrez (C) 1:25.52.

500 freestyle - 1. Kaster (C) 6:13.30; 2. Rippon (C) 6:26.41; 3. Weets (T) 6:56.32; 4. Amelia Bormann (T) 8:33.32.

200 freestyle relay - 1. Tipton (Moritz, McKinney, Gavin, Goetz) 1:50.23; 2. Tipton (Becker, Kruse, Rabedeaux, Stepleton) 2:03.60; 3. Clinton (Erling, Spooner, Harden, Gutierrez) 2:06.91; 4. Tipton (Miller, Leff, Katie Schroeder, Hein) 2:15.26; 5. Clinton (Meagan Machholz, Wells, Kendra Evers, Callan) 2:15.30.

100 backstroke - 1. Goetz (T) 1:09.51; 2. Stanley (C) 1:10.01; 3. Gavin (T) 1:13.71; 4. Harden (C) 1:38.77; 5. Bormann (T) 1:47.14.

100 breaststroke - 1. Hess (C) 1:10.16; 2. Moritz (T) 1:16.80; 3. Kristin Grimoskas (T) 1:28.33; 4. Becker (T) 1:30.25; 5. Evers (C) 1:30.54; 6. Gutierrez (C) 1:53.69.

400 freestyle relay - 1. Clinton (Rippon, Wilden, Stanley, Hess) 4:07.03; 2. Tipton (Fox, McKinney, Stepleton, Gavin) 4:40.25; 3. Tipton (Weets, Hein, Gaul, Rabedeaux) 5:01.59; 4. Tipton (Gregorcyk, Bormann, Schroeder, Leff) 5:38.86.



Junior varsity

Clinton 89, Tipton 28

Winners

200 medley relay - Clinton (Kali Parker, Emma Yahn, Stevie Erling, Katie Frandsen) 2:49.86. 200 freestyle - Laura Callan (C) 3:18.94. 200 individual medley - Parker (C) 3:31.93. 50 freestyle - Tssa Byers (T) 35.54. 100 butterfly - Meagan Machholz (C) 2:04.37. 100 freestyle - Brittney Miller (T) 1:16.36. 500 freestyle - Breezy Mussman (C) 7:45.38. 200 freestyle relay - Clinton (Frandsen, Yahn, Parker, Erling) 2:22.93. 100 backstroke - Frandsen (C) 1:44.29. 100 breaststroke - Ellen Penningroth (T) 1:41.50. 400 freestyle relay - Clinton (Kate Kaster, Erling, Yahn, Parker) 5:16.00.

        

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