For the first time in program history, the Midtown girls swim team podiumed at the State Meet, earning second place overall. While the team has had individual state records and first-place finishes in past years, this marks Midtown’s highest ever team placement.
After finishing fifth at the state meet last season, coach Ginny Palmich said the team went into preliminaries on Wednesday, Feb. 4 aiming to position themselves well for the second day of competition on Thursday, Feb. 5.
“We were in a pretty good spot after the preliminaries on Wednesday,” Palmich said. “There was only one swimmer that didn’t qualify in one event, so 99% of our swimmers made it back, which was good, because you only score if you’re top 20 on the second day.”
Marist swept state for the second consecutive year, but only a slim gap separated Midtown and Blessed Trinity in the race for second.
“Marist got first by a lot,” Palmich said. “They typically do, but the biggest impact for us was the difference between second and third. Essentially, it was one race. If we won the last race, we got second. If Blessed Trinity won the last race, they got second. Every single swimmer counted. All of the points mattered for us. If one swimmer had not placed where they did, or placed one to two places lower, we wouldn’t have gotten second. It was really tight.”
Junior Dabney Bond, who competed in two relays, the 200 individual medley, and the 500 freestyle, said the team was very aware of how narrow the margin was between second and third.
“Our coaches had told us beforehand that the girls had a good shot to podium overall, and everyone knew that it would be close and every place counted,” Bond said. ”So instead of thinking about points it was more about going as fast as possible and placing as high as we could.”
Midtown qualified just seven girls with state times — five juniors, one freshman and one senior — far fewer than the other podium teams. Palmich said finishing second under those circumstances was a significant accomplishment.
“We’re thrilled with the second place,” Palmich said. “It was about as good as we could have gotten out of the smaller team that we had. We only had seven girls swimming at state. Marist had at least double the swimmers we had. We didn’t have the depth, but the swimmers that were there could not have swam better.”
Junior Sarah Paisley Owen, who placed first in both the 200 free and 100 fly events, emphasized how much every swimmer contributed to securing the second place finish, especially given the team’s small size.
“Throughout the season, I’ve seen our team vastly grow and improve,” Owen said. “I always believed we had the potential to place at the state meet, but seeing it actually happen is so exciting and rewarding. I think that our team’s size makes it even more special. Our girls team only had seven swimmers competing, while other teams at the meet had double that. The fact we were able to place so high with such a small team is very impressive. It just proves how motivated and hardworking our team is.”
Senior Aerin Jones, the only senior to compete at the state meet, swam in the 200 Medley Relay earning first place, the 200 freestyle earning 17th place and the 200 freestyle relay earning seventh place. She said the team’s support for one another pushed everyone to perform their best.
“States this year was honestly the highlight of the school year so far, especially even making the state team after taking a year off junior year,” Jones said. “Even though I was the only senior girl on the state team, I felt very supported by everyone around me, and it was great to cap off the season by getting my first gold medal and swimming fast one more time with my teammates that are also graduating with me this year.”
Owen said the atmosphere of being at the state meet elevated the team’s performance.
“High school state is always an electric meet; it’s very exciting and high energy,” Owen said. “That kind of energy makes it easy to get up and swim fast for your team. I could tell that everybody was so excited to compete and many of my teammates had the best times. It was cool to see how that kind of environment can bring out the best in people.”
While preparation for the state meet started months before, the team still faced setbacks in the final weeks. A stretch of inclement weather disrupted the practice schedule, forcing cancellations and limiting relay practice. Palmich said that although planning for states began as soon as the roster was set in the fall, the cold weather messed up the practice schedule and caused a loss of crucial practice time.
“The last two weekends leading into state were ice storms, so we had to cancel our state practice, which was the one time we would have practiced relay starts,” Palmich said. “Then APS championships and metros got moved around, finals were canceled at metros, and we couldn’t run the relays the way we wanted to. It was a mess, and they had a lot less practice together for relays going into state.”
Relay preparation was crucial to the team’s success. Bond said the coaches strategy for the three state relays is what helped them secure a podium win.
“The placements and orders of the relays definitely impacted the scoring, as they scored double the points of individual races and are very important,” Bond said. “Getting first in an individual event scores 24 points for the team, but a relay scores 48, so preparing for relays was crucial. If we hadn’t started preparing so early with the weather messing up practice, we might not have gotten second at state.”
Even with the unexpected weather that affected relay preparations specifically, Palmich said the team relied on experience to provide stability.
“We were able to have an expectation of the events we wanted them to swim at state because they’ve [juniors] done this a couple times now,” Palmich said. “Having juniors on relays with freshmen helped with nerves, especially at state in their first year.”
Junior Harper Wagner, who placed seventh in the 200 freestyle relay, 16th in the 500 freestyle and seventh in breaststroke, said the team’s preparation was more than just physical training.
“Our coaches were really supportive this season,” Wagner said. “They worked on our confidence all season, and the whole state team felt really prepared to swim. We also wore new tech suits so we could be as fast as possible in the water and get more points in finals.”
Next season, Midtown will move up to Class 6A. Bond said that this second place finish could mean a lot as Midtown moves into a higher classification.
“I’m super proud of our team, and this makes me even more excited and optimistic for next year,” Bond said. “As we are moving to 6A, it’s going to be sort of new territory, but I think that we could hopefully do even better.”
