IOWA CITY — Four Solon athletes – freshman Nora Bumsted, sophomores Madelyn Elkins and Ella Pressler, and senior Grace Hoeper, are swimming with the Iowa City High School Little Hawks this season. 

For Hoeper, her performance in last Tuesday’s first meet of the season (at the Mercer Park Aquatic Center against Cedar Rapids Kennedy) was as hot as the temperatures outside with two individual wins, both besting the qualifying times for the State Meet at the end of the season. Hoeper won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.08 to automatically qualify while beating the qualifying standard time of 1:57.74 and won the 100-yard fly in 56.73 seconds, again beating the qualifying mark of 59.81. Hoeper also anchored the winning 4×50-yard relay with City High’s Louisa Berry-Stoelzle and Elsa Farber, and fellow Solonite Madelyn Elkins with a total time of 1:45.34 and the 2nd place 4×100 freestyle relay with City’s Farber, Ellie Galloway, and Vidya Kumar with a time of 4:08.58.

Elkins anchored the 2nd place varsity 4×50-yard medley relay with Galloway, Berry-Stoelzle, and Eliza Mitchell (2:08.76) and took third in the varsity 50-yard freestyle (27.71) and varsity 100-yard freestyle (tying with City’s Farber, 1:02.51).

Nora Bumsted led off for the 5th place JV 4×50 medley with City’s Betsy Gavin, Ily Jensen, and Shaona Emmanuel (2:58.95) and swam the second leg of the 4th place JV 4×50 freestyle with Gavin, Emmanuel, and Malorie James (2:35.51). Bumsted took third in the JV 100-yard freestyle (1:19.52) and was sixth in the JV 100-yard backstroke (1:40.20).

The Kennedy Cougars swept the night winning the varsity meet 103-79 and the JV meet 84-71.

Upcoming schedule

Tuesday, Sept. 10 – HOME (Mercer Park Aquatic Center) vs. Dubuque Hempstead. 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 17 – AT Cedar Rapids Washington HS. 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 21 – HOME Little Hawk Relays. 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 24 – AT Linn-Mar HS, Marion. 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 28 – AT Cedar Rapids Kennedy HS. 9:00 a.m.