Girls swimming: Sterling’s Madison Austin qualifies for state with record swim

BYRON – Sterling sophomore Madison Austin had two things on her mind as she got ready to swim at the Byron Sectional on Saturday afternoon.

After accomplishing both of the two main objectives she set out to achieve, she went home happy.

Austin qualified for state in the 100-yard freestyle, and also swam to second place in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay. She was part of the third-place 200 free relay as well, making for a fun Saturday for the Water Warriors.

[ Photos from the Byron Sectional girls swim meet ]

“My goal was to make it to state as well as get the school record,” she said about the 100 free, “and I just started out and went as fast as I could the whole time, and I did both of those things.”

Austin finished in 52.24 seconds, beating her seed time by 2.32 seconds and clearing the state-qualifying mark by .62 seconds. It was also her second school record of the day, as she swam a 1:55.98 in the 200 free a few events earlier. That beat her seed time by 2.03 seconds, and just missed the state cut by 1.10 seconds.

“Madison’s got one more week, and she’s just going to continue working. We’ll see where that goes,” said Sterling coach Karina Austin, Madison’s mom. “She blew us away today, so that was great.”

She teamed with twin sister Kate Austin, Hazel Pham and Sammie Knox to take second in the 400 freestyle relay to end the meet, swimming a 3:43.26 to beat their seed time by a whopping 9.18 seconds.

“We all hit our best times today, so it was really nice. We all did our best, and that’s what we wanted to do in the sectional,” Madison Austin said.

Earlier, she had joined her sister, Knox and Payton Purdy to take third in the 200 free relay, clocking a 1:42.93 to beat their seed time by 3.92 seconds.

“They went 100% best times today, so this is unbelievable,” coach Austin said. “They did a great job, they’ve been working hard all season. Together as a team they’ve set some goals, and they’ve accomplished probably 99% of them, which is great. We’re very proud of them.”

Madison Austin credited her teammates with helping her stay calm and focused coming into the meet where everything is on the line, which helped her earn the state berth in the 100 freestyle.

“My team has really helped push me for this, and supported me. We’ve had a lot of fun,” she said. “I just brought that into that race to help make get my goals.

“Now I’ve just got to work as hard as I can [for next week], and we’ll see where it takes me.”

Kate Austin won a pair of medals as a top-6 finisher, taking fifth in the 200 freestyle (2:03.27) and a sixth in the 100 backstroke (1:02.38). Knox finished fifth in the 200 IM (2:23.41) for the Water Warriors.

Byron senior Audrey Kilmer led the host Tigers by qualifying for state in a pair of events. She teamed up with Lily Swiech, Madi Groharing and Emily Marshall to start off the meet with a bang, winning the 200 medley relay. Two events later, she won the 200 IM to punch her state ticket again.

“That’s where everybody wants to go, and it’s really exciting that I get to swim there,” she said. “The relays, I was really happy with, and the 100 fly, but my 200 IM was not exactly what I wanted to go, but it’s all right. I’ve got another race at state next week.”

Kilmer swam a 2:11.31 to win the 200 IM by nearly five seconds over teammate Swiech (2:16.10). But even after beating her seed time by 1.47 seconds, she still wants to go faster next weekend.

“I know that our taper is going to go back up, and then we’re going to go back down right before we leave for state, so I’m trusting the taper,” she said.

Kilmer also took second in the 100 butterfly, clocking a 58.47 to beat her seed time by 1.96 seconds, but missing the state cut by .58 seconds. And she joined Groharing, Swiech and Marshall again to place second in the 200 free relay in 1:40.98, 4.30 seconds better than their seed time but still 3.16 seconds off the state qualifying mark.

But the 200 medley relay win to open the meet was what had Kilmer excited. At the same time, it also helped take away the nerves right from the start.

“That was awesome. We weren’t supposed to win, and it was exciting. I think it calmed us down, too,” Kilmer said. “I was still nervous for my individual races, but it’s way more nerve-wracking for the medley because for backstroke, you have to actually be in the water to start [instead of on the blocks], so that was really scary.”

The Byron quartet clocked a 1:50.44 to win the 200 medley, 4.41 seconds better than its seed time. Swiech credited each individual swimmer’s improvement with the strong relay swim.

“It’s always the goal to make state, and that’s the direction we want to be going in. But really and truly, our biggest goal was just to make personal bests, because we’re always trying to climb to new heights.” she said. “If we get to state, that’s fabulous, but as long as everyone is doing their part and making improvements for them personally, that’s always a great thing to see in a team.”

Swiech finished her meet strong, setting a new school record in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.17 to earn her third runner-up finish of the meet. That was 2.77 seconds faster than her seed time; she also went 5.13 seconds faster than her seed time in her second-place finish in the 200 IM.

“It’s always the goal to break records and just set new levels for yourself,” Swiech said. “I was really just excited to get a new personal best, and with that coming with the record, and knowing that will be up there [on the record board] for at least a while is something really exciting to have happen. You always make it the goal to push yourself forward.”

Byron will have another state qualifier in sophomore Addison Bausman, whose score of 461.55 in the 1-meter diving competition earlier in the day was second to Guilford’s Marissa Enke (463.50), but is also the third-best score among the sectional non-winners across the state. The top 32 divers who don’t win sectional titles earn at-large berths to state.

Other medalists for the Tigers were Groharing, who took third in the 200 freestyle (2:01.33) and fourth in the 100 butterfly (58.87); Marshall, who was sixth in the 100 freestyle (56.00); Rylie Vatch, who placed sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.98); and the 400 free relay team of Ady Balser-Heather, Natalie Kilmer, Ainsley Hale and Vatch, who took sixth in 3:55.80.

Senior Schyon Drolema led Morrison with a pair of fifth-place finishes, in the 50 freestyle (24.96) and the 100 freestyle (55.89).