DUBUQUE — City High’s girls swim team traveled to Hempstead High School in Dubuque Saturday, October 21 for the 2023 Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) Championship.
Iowa City West High won both the Valley Division and overall Conference Championship with 509 (division) and 445 (conference) points, respectively. The Little Hawks, with Solon’s Grace Hoeper, Tatum Holtkamp, Claire Leone, Avery Mann, Ella Vernon, Madelyn Elkins, Taryn Anderson, and Paige Anderson were sixth in the Valley (213 points) and ninth overall (139 points). Hoeper was named the MVC Valley Division Swimmer of the Year.
Hoeper, a junior, has rewritten several City High records this season and leads the state in the 50-yard freestyle (23.37) and 100-yard butterfly (56.82), and is second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.09), 100-yard freestyle (50.73), and 500-yard freestyle (5:06.33). Hoeper, who was the KCRG-TV9 Athlete of the Week last week, won the 200 and 100 freestyle events in 1:54.02 and 51.23, setting a meet record in the 100. In addition, she anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay (4th Valley Div., 5th MVC) with City’s Margalit Frank, Saoirse Miller, and Elsa Farber (1:44.19) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (2nd Valley, 3rd MVC) with Frank, Farber, and Miller (3:51.07).
Mann, a senior, was fifth (ninth overall) in the 500 freestyle (5:55.76), swam the third leg of the 7th place (Valley) and 11th (MVC) medley relay with City’s Ellie Galloway, Miller, and Frank (2:02.92), and anchored the 400-freestyle relay with City’s Celeste Miller, Galloway, and fellow Spartan Elkins (4:11.05). Mann took 19th (division) in the 50 freestyle (29.20) tying with CR Jefferson’s Lily Gearheart for 28th in the conference.
Elkins, a freshman, was 16th (division) and 23rd (MVC) in the 50 freestyle (27.72) and was 16th (division) in the 100 freestyle and 24th (MVC) in 1:02.03. She anchored the 200-freestyle relay with City’s Eliza Mitchell, Mira Cunning, and fellow Spartan Holtkamp (1:54.24).
Holtkamp, a senior, was 16th (division) and 25th (MVC) in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:23.03) and swam the second leg of the 200-medley relay with City’s Celeste Miller, Vidya Kumar, and Cunning (2:12.35).
Upcoming events
The 2023 Regional competition will be held next week with City High traveling to Linn-Mar (Marion) for State Qualifying Diving Thursday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 4 for State Qualifying Swimming with Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Grinnell, Linn-Mar, Ottumwa, Tipton, Vinton-Shellsburg, Waukee, and Williamsburg.
The 2023 Girls State Swimming and Diving Meet is set for Friday, Nov. 10 (diving and swimming preliminaries) and Saturday, Nov. 11 (swimming finals) at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA.