The Ames High girls swimming team has continued their winning tradition this year. After a championship season in 2010, they had no intent of falling short this time. Senior Maddie Bro entered the season confident that their team had a good chance to live up to the previous year. “Everyone on the team who participated in club swimming made great improvements over the summer,” said Bro, who signed her National Letter of Intent with the University of Iowa last week. “I knew that we were going to have a successful varsity season.” Even with eight champions at the Regional Meet in Fort Dodge, including Taylor Flummerfelt, Rachel Shriver, Hannah Newell, and Bro setting a new pool record in the 400 Freestyle Relay, the team still knew that competition at state was going to be tough. “Swimmers from other teams put up respectable times at regionals, but that didn’t intimidate us,” Bro said. “We had confidence in our training and in each other.” Led by senior team captains Bro, Shriver, and Sarah Kemp, the team entered the state meet with an undefeated record. The theme that the three of them came up with as inspiration was “Long Live: We Will Be Remembered”, from Taylor Swift’s song “Long Live.” With this phrase on their state team shirts, they certainly made themselves remembered. It was a good year to be a little cyclone swimmer, as they brought home their second consecutive state championship. Increasing the point difference from last year’s meet between Ames and the second place team made the day even more memorable. Individually, the 200 Medley Relay team made up of Bro, Flummerfelt, Sydney Sorenson, and Lauren Rosser, and the 400 Freestyle Relay team both earned Automatic All-American status by winning in state record time, Flummerfelt won both the 50 and 100 Freestyle, and Bro won the 100 Backstroke and finished second in the 50 Freestyle. Maggie James won the 1-meter diving and Kemp, who signed her National Letter of Intent with the University of Northern Iowa last week, was runner-up. “Winning the team title meant the world to us,” Bro said. “There aren’t many people who have championship experiences like these, and we definitely cherish these moments.”

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