Members of the 2023 Decorah girls swim and dive team include (front, l-r) Lauren Holthaus, Naomi Kutz, Ava Carolan, Chloe Sheffield, Cori Timm, Jorja Folkedahl, McKenzie Tollefson; (middle) Margaret Hahn, Aubrey Gesing, Avalea Burns, Annie Ondrashek, Faith Starrett, Bridget Bentley, Brenna Parker, Isis Timm; (back) Serenity Easler, Reagan Lubahn, Lauren Luzum, Sydney Thompson, Liz Bucksa, Kendra Elsbernd, Joey Vobr, Annika Becker, Isabella Sailor and Naomi Simon.
A time to rebuild.
The Decorah girls swim and dive team graduated a large group of seniors — 14 to be exact. Of those, the five state qualifiers have all graduated, leaving second-year head coach Loran Storts and assistant coach Maddy Putnam looking at the letter winners and newcomers to step up.
Conference champs
In 2022, there were 10 letter winners, including five athletes who had competed at state to build a team around during the season.
It was a great day at the conference meet when the Vikes claimed five race titles and took the North Central Swim Conference title for the third year in a row. Julia Alberts was the first to win gold in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:01.11. Paige Werner also earned an individual title in the 500-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 5:42.35. Then it was the 200-yard free relay’s turn to win in 1:42.31. Members of the team were Alberts, Maeley Nefzger, Katerina Kovarik and Werner. That same quartet won the 400-yard free relay in 3:47.86. Nefzger won her third gold of the meet in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:04.84.
Two weeks later at the regional meet, the Vikes came in second with 312 points and qualified six events for the state meet. Moving on were Brinley Krivachek in diving, Werner in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle, Julia Alberts in the 100-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The season ended on a strong note in Marshalltown. The Vikes best finish came in the 200-yard relay. The combination of Werner, Nefzger, Kovarik and Alberts posted a time of 1:41.76, earning 14th overall. The same quartet finished the 400-yard relay in 3:47.64, to finish 20th. Werner missed the finals by .01 with a time of 25.30 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing 17th overall and was 25th in the 100-yard freestyle in 55.77 seconds. Alberts, who also competed in the 100-yard freestyle was 25th in 55.77 seconds, while diver Brinley Krivachek finished 24th at state.
Graduating after the season were Julia Alberts, Rebecca Bruening, Lily Iverson, Rylee Kapler, Katerina Kovarik, Brinley Krivachek, Maeley Nefzger, Kailyn O’Gara, Kylie O’Hara, Mya Redenius, Thea Schissel, Kalissa Schmelzer, Grace Stegen and Paige Werner.
Going for four
The coaches will have a core group of athletes to work with who were a part of last year’s conference championship team — with a goal of winning its fourth straight title.
“We will definitely need to focus on every individual contributing this year,” said Coach Storts. “We have a lot of new swimmers, and swimmers returning to the pool after a few years away. We will get better every meet as our experience and confidence grows.”
Looking to lead the rebuild of the Viking team will be returning letter winners Annika Becker, Bridget Bentley, Kendra Elsbernd, Jorja Folkedahl, Lauren Holthaus, Annie Ondrashek, Brenna Parker, Isabella Sailor, Autumn Schmitt, Faith Starrett and Joey Vobr.
Among the hopefuls are Liz Bucksa, Avalea Burns, Serenity Easler, Aubree Gesing, Margaret Hahn, Naomi Kutz, Reagan Lubahn, Naomi Simon, Chloe Sheffield, Isis Timm, Sydney Thompson and McKenzie Tollefson.
“We have a lot of young swimmers with not a lot of experience. Some may view this as a negative, but I view this as a positive thing as swimmers will get to swim a lot of events at a lot of meets. Confidence grows through repetitions,” added Coach Storts. “We have a mantra ‘progress, not perfection.’ One practice at a time, one meet at a time. If we focus on our effort in practice, the results will be there when they are needed.”
Submit A Comment
Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.