MIDWEST SWIM REGIONALS - Medford youth swimmers battle with Midwest’s best in Minneapolis

MIDWEST SWIM REGIONALS

Seven swimmers from Medford enjoyed a weekend of success with several personal-best times and high placements at the USA Swimming Midwest Regional Meet, held March 23-24 at the University of Minnesota. Swimmers from seven states were represented in the meet.

Six of the swimmers swam as members of the Northern Lakes Aquatic Club, who took second in the team standings after all 102 events were completed with 1,447 points. The club was three points ahead of the Blue Fins from Iowa. The Life Time Minnesota Swim Team was the team champion with 1,570.

“It was a great way to end the season,” Medford Swim Club head coach Jeremy Sperl said. “It gets me really excited to see what these girls do moving forward. We’re ranging from 8 to 13 in age that swam. It really sets up a lot of success moving forward for Medford swim.”

“I’m so proud of each and every one of these girls,” assistant coach Janelle Hamland said. “They worked so hard in the extended practice season and it paid off at the regional meet. Every single one had personal bests. Not only did they swim awesome, they had great sportsmanship and had a lot of fun.”

Mallory Hackbarth and Brynn Hackbarth totaled 124 and 123 points respectively to place second and third in the 8-and-under individual standings and Violet Hamland scored 60 individual points in the age class.

Mallory Hackbarth won the 50-yard freestyle in 36.4 seconds, just ahead of her sister, who took second with an improved time of 37.76 seconds. Mallory Hackbarth also won the 25-yard butterfly in 17.94 seconds, her best time of the season, while Hamland placed sixth in an improved time of 23.07 seconds.

Brynn Hackbarth was the champion in the 50- and 25-yard backstrokes. She won the 50-yard race in 44.66 seconds and Hamland was fifth in 48.38 seconds. Brynn won the 25-yard race in her best time of 20.25 seconds, just 0.08 seconds ahead of runner-up Mallory. Hamland wasn’t far off, taking fourth in 21.34 seconds.

There were plenty more points to come for these three.

In the 100-yard freestyle, Mallory Hackbarth was second in 1:22.77 and Brynn Hackbarth was third in 1:23.65, a significant drop from her seed time of 1:36.31. Mallory lowered her time to 1:30.28 and took second in the 100-yard individual medley, just 0.46 seconds behind champion Kora Lind of Vermillion, S.D.

Brynn Hackbarth added a secondplace time of 16.54 seconds in the 25-yard freestyle, just 0.02 seconds behind Laura Villanueva of Yankton, S.D. Hamland was 11th in 20.24 seconds. Hackbarth was third in 25-yard breaststroke in an improved time of 22.86 seconds.

Brynn Hackbarth added another second- place finish in the 50-yard breaststroke, cutting her time to 48.43 seconds, 1.07 seconds behind Maya Doshi of Green Bay. Mallory Hackbarth was third in 49.72 seconds and she added one more second, finishing the 50-yard butterfly in 42.87 seconds, 2.61 seconds behind Lind.

Ten-year-old Adalyn Hackbarth was busy, scoring 61 points in the 9-10 age group.

Hackbarth placed fifth out of 10 swimmers in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:26.26 and was sixth in the 50-yard race with an improved time of 39.27 seconds. She took sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:36.04 and was sixth in the 50-yard breaststroke at 43.49 seconds.

Hackbarth added 13th-place swims in the 100-yard freestyle (1:16.93) and 50yard freestyle (34.36).

Sophie Sperl, Mylah Hamland and Livy Emmerich, who swam representing the Medford Aqua Fins, competed in the girls 13-14 age class.

Sperl, who had missed her state competition the first weekend in March due to illness, came back strong setting several personal-best times.

Sperl captured third place in the 100yard breaststroke and shaved 0.24 seconds off her best time at 1:15.73. Anna Miller of Green Bay (1:11.56) and Rio Hammitt of the Blue Fins (1:12.54) were the only swimmers faster. Emmerich placed ninth in that race at 1:21.98, lowering her seed time by 12.2 seconds.

Sperl took fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke, knocking off 1.15 seconds to finish in 2:48.51. She added a 19th-place time of 1:02.57 in the 100-yard freestyle, beating her seed time by 2.55 seconds, while Mylah Hamland dropped more than three seconds and was 21st in 1:03 and Emmerich was 26th in 1:03.89, coming in nearly 10 seconds under her seed time.

Emmerich and Sperl were 26th and 27th in the 50-yard freestyle sprint with times of 28.55 and 28.58 seconds and Hamland tied for 37th at 29.33 seconds.

Hamland had an outstanding swim in the 200-yard backstroke, where she placed fourth out of 13 swimmers in 2:28.41. She dropped 1.73 seconds from her seed time. Hamland clipped 0.11 seconds off her seed time while placing 11th out of 34 finishers in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:10.11. Emmerich wasn’t far behind by taking 16th in a time of 1:12.38 that was 13.26 seconds faster than her seed time. Hamland was 12th out of 34 finishers in the 200-yard freestyle with her improved time of 2:16.92 and Emmerich took off 23-second chunk of time while taking 22nd in 2:21.45.

Hamland added a 14th-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:39.09, which chopped off two seconds from her previous best.

The Medford swimmers also were parts of high-scoring relay teams for Northern Lakes Aquatic.

Mylah Hamland and Sperl were part of the second-place team in the girls 14 and under 200-ayrd freestyle relay. The squad finished in 1:58.82 to trail the Blue Fins by 0.85 seconds. They were 0.21 seconds ahead of the third-place Sheboygan Chinooks. Hamland and Sperl also were on the third-place team in the girls 15-18 200-yard medley relay, which finished in 2:00.32, just behind Minot, N.D., who won in a meet-record 1:55.97 and Fremont, Neb. (1:58.53).

Sperl was on the third-place team in the girls 15-18 400-yard medley relay, which posted a time of 4:36.59. Minot set another meet record at 4:23.84 and La Crosse was second at 4:25.52.

All three Hackbarths and Violet Hamland teamed up to place fourth in the girls 10 and under 200-yard freestyle relay at 2:25.86, improving by almost 27 seconds. Life Time Minnesota Swim’s team won in 2:15.35. The Medford team was 1.26 seconds behind the third-place Blue Fins.