Sports : VS swimmers set more records at Charles City

Savannah Jensen, Katie King, Emily Freeland & Lauren Krupa set school record in 200 Freestyle Relay.

Tuesday was yet another record breaking evening as the Vinton-Shellsburg Union lady swimmers continued their season-long assault on the record books. Three more program swimming bests fell in Charles City as the ladies turned in their best team performance of the year in finishing a close third at the annual Charles City Invitational.

Highlighting the evening were senior captains Katie King and Savannah Jensen who each broke school records. In the second event of the night King beat the previous record in the 200 Freestyle in finishing a close second. Her time of 2:12.64 bettered the record of 2:13.02 set by Ashley Hesson (Staab) in 2001 and tied by Heather Cook in 2004. Katie also scored an individual event victory taking the win in the 100 Butterfly in 2:07.56 – less than a second off the school record.

Matching Katie’s outstanding effort, Savannah Jensen brok the school record in the 50 Freestyle racing to a second place finish in 27.02 seconds. Her time beat the old record of 27.14 set in 2004 by Ariel Steffen. Savannah also took second in the 100 Freestyle at 59.97 marking the first time she has gone under a minute and putting her about a tenth of a second from setting another program record. “I was so excited for Savannah” commented Coach Mike Dominick. “She has been working extremely hard for that record for two and a half years. She has been so close and she finally got it. It really shows the other girls that hard work and dedication will pay off”

But these two individual accomplishments were not the end of the record-breaking evening as the team of Jensen, junior Emily Freeland, King and speedy freshman Lauren “Supah” Krupa took down the record in the 200 Freestyle Relay. Posting a time of 1:51.95, the girls edged the 2004 record by about half a second.

Aside from the records, the entire team demonstrated continued improvement, with the eleven girls registering 15 new personal best times. Katie King, Savannah Jensen and Lauren Krupa each turned in three new bests. Kassie Hennings set a new personal best in the 500 Freestyle as she finished a strong third. Freshman Sierra Goodell continued her tremendous improvement setting a pair of bests by dropping 2 seconds in the 100 Butterfly and 4.6 seconds in the 100 Breaststroke. Katie Freeland, Emily Freeland and Madison Elwick also turned in new personal best marks.

Overall the girls finished a close third with 116 points, just behind second place host Charles City who scored 131. A very strong Decorah team won the meet with a score of 192. Algona finished fourth. The Vikettes are up again this Saturday as they travel to Marshalltown to swim in their conference meet before finishing the regular season at the district meet in Iowa City.