By Fred Kroner
The swim season ended for the Mahomet-Seymour girls’ team on Saturday (Nov. 6) at the Urbana Sectional, but the Bulldogs gave their best.
In a 22-school meet, M-S had entries in 11 events and in nine of those events, the individuals or relays established season-best times.
The Bulldogs placed fifth in the team standings.
Champaign Central won the sectional crown (297 points) and was followed by Charleston (162), Centennial (153), Urbana Uni High (129), Mahomet-Seymour (120) and Sullivan (70).
Freshman Maddy Logsdon registered her top times in all four of her events. Setting season bests in three events were senior Olivia McMurry, senior Kate Raver, junior Eden Oelze and junior Kiera McCoy.
Oelze and McMurry each secured third-place finishes in an individual event to account for the top placement among the Bulldogs.
Oelze was third in the 100-yard butterfly (1 minute, 3.17 seconds) and McMurry was third in the 50-yard freestyle (25.58).
Oelze’s time bettered her top mark of the season by 1.98 seconds. McMurry lowered her top time by .57.
McMurry placed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:03.36) and Oelze was sixth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:25.41).
McMurry dropped 1.45 seconds in the backstroke and Oelze’s time was 1.09 seconds better than her previous best in the 200 IM.
Raver cut 3.17 seconds off in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing in 1:00.39 for eighth place.
Logsdon recorded major drops in both of her individual events. In the 500-yard freestyle, she cut 36.06 seconds and placed ninth in 6:23.89.
In the 200 individual medley, she cut 4:00 and ended the race in 11th place with a 2:38.52 clocking.
Also adding an 11th place finish was McCoy in the 200-yard freestyle. Her 2:18.95 time was an improvement of 6.06.
To score team points, individuals needed to finish among the top 12 in their events.
Two M-S relays posted their No. 1 times of the season.
The meet-ending 400-yard freestyle relay chopped 18.52 seconds off its previous best, placing fourth in 4:17.06.
The swimmers were Logsdon, McCoy, Taylor Easter and Raver. Anchor Raver had a split that was even quicker than in her open 100 freestyle race. Her relay split was 58.97.
The other high-placing relay was the 200-yard freestyle foursome of Oelze, Raver, Logsdon and McMurry. In their final race of the season, they combined for a 1:45.28 time, a drop of 5:17. They placed fourth with McMurry swimming the anchor leg in 25.26.
The M-S 200-yard medley unit placed fifth in 2:04.91, just missing its season’s best. The competitors were McMurry, Anna Lagacy, Oelze and Raver, who ended with a 26.68 anchor split.
Kaitlyn Stewart recorded her top times in two events. She was 16th in the 100-yard butterfly (1:43.19), bettering her previous mark by 2:40. She also ended 17th in the 500-yard freestyle, trimming 23.18 off her previous best. She was clocked in 8:38.32.
Other M-S athletes finishing the year with their best marks were Easter in the 200-yard freestyle (16th in 2:40.10) and McCoy in the 100-yard backstroke (tied for 15th in 1:13.25).
McCoy dropped her time by 6.31 and Easter improved by 5.60 seconds.
Other Bulldog sectional competitors were Lagacy (18th in the 100-yard breaststroke, 1:30.00), Easter (22nd in the 100-yard freestyle, 1:10.16), Trinity Allen (26th in the 100-yard breaststroke, 1:46.63) and Lagacy (30th in the 50-yard freestyle, 32.78).
Raver was a part of a team-high 69 points for the Bulldogs at sectional. McMurry was part of 64 points, Oelze was part of 63 points and Logsdon was part of 48 points.
