Three school records and two state records were set, four event state championships were won, two events swum received “All-American” status, junior Maddie Bro was awarded “State Athlete of the Year”, the Ames coaching staff was awarded “State Coaching Staff of the Year” and Ames High’s first swimming and diving team championship was won. Head coach Dan Flannery described these accomplishments at the 2010 State Swimming and Diving Meet as “Boom! moments.” The word “Boom!” was on this year’s state T-shirts and was inspired by a recent Nike commercial. Flannery said, “The one word that can describe our enthusiasm for our state meet was ‘Boom!’: to get up and go. In swimming…the ‘Boom’ factor is the big swim that we were expecting from that one person, but we had quite a few. ” After being the head coach of the girls and boys teams for upwards of twelve years and coming close to winning the team title a number of years, an effort to win by the all members of the girls state team was satisfying for Flannery. “ Everybody bought into what it was we we’re trying to work for. It wasn’t just a couple of swimmers contributing to the win, nearly everyone scored.” Divers Megan Cohea, Sarah Kemp, and Anna Joerger got the meet off to a great start scoring a total of 31 points for Ames and having two place in the top five. Cohea, a senior, was runner-up, Kemp, a junior, placed 5th, and Joerger, a senior, placed 18th, just two places away from scoring. “[Getting 31 points] put [the swimmers] ahead of our biggest competition before the meet had even began,” said Cohea. “We were all really excited about how we did on Friday night. All of us placed better than we had went into the meet ranked as, and all of us also beat our personal bests,” said Cohea, who plans to attend Iowa State University and will dive there in the fall of 2011. The first event of the swimming portion of the meet was the 200 Medley Relay. Ames’ relay of junior Maddie Bro, freshman Sydney Sorenson, junior Lauren Rosser, and sophomore Taylor Flummerfelt took 1st place in the event, setting a new state meet record and achieving “All-American” status. “The 200 freestylers were energized after the win in the 200 Medley Relay. You saw all three of them score, and I think that was a big, big moment. I saw that as turning over it and giving the meet to us,” said Flannery. Freshman Sorenson and Sara Bentley both finished in the top 16 in 200 Individual Medley. Bro and Flummerfelt tied in the 50 Freestyle, both becoming State Champions in that event. Rosser placed fifth the 100 Butterfly and senior Charlotte Quant finished 10th also in the butterfly. Flummerfelt was runner-up in the 100 Freestyle. Senior Chrisann Zuerner had a top 16 finish in the 500 Freestyle, and 200 Freestyle Relay of Sorenson, junior Rachel Shriver, senior Maddie Andersen and freshman Hannah Newell finished ninth. Bro defended her state title in the 100 backstroke, setting a new school and state record, receiving “All-American” status and being the first female high school swimmer to break 56 seconds in state history. Senior Abby Rewoldt and Sorenson both scored in the 100 Breaststroke, Rewoldt placing 8th and Sorenson placing 12th. The final event of the meet was the 400 Freestyle Relay. Ames’ relay of Newell, Flummerfelt, Shriver and Bro was seeded first with a third and a half second lead over Bettendorf’s second seeded relay. After Newell’s leg of the race, Ames was in fifth. Flummerfelt then caught the leader and passed the rest of the field. Shriver also increased the relay’s lead and Bro finished the relay five seconds ahead of West Des Moines Valley’s second-place relay team, winning the event. Ames led the overall team scoring throughout the swimming portion of the meet. After the announcement was made that Ames won, the team took pictures up on the podium with the trophy. Suddenly, assistant coach Abby Van Maaren yelled, “Who wants to get in the water?!” All the members of the team took the plunge, including three coaches. Fortunately, a new Droid is coming in the mail for Flannery. Check out http://www.ameshighswimming.com/girls/ to read about more ”Boom!” moments.