IOWA CITY — All four Solon swimmers competing with the Iowa City High School Little Hawks placed in a home meet against Dubuque Hempstead last Thursday. City High swept the meet 102-76 (varsity) and 117-13 (JV).
Senior Grace Hoeper dominated, competing with the varsity team and taking first place in the 4×50-yard medley relay (1:59.38) 100 yard butterfly (57.53), 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.98), and 4×100-yard freestyle relay (3:58.32).
Hoeper, who has been swimming for the past 11 years, said that Iowa’s swimming community may be small, but the fans are dedicated to the sport.
“Obviously, it’s not the most popular sport by any means, but I feel like we have a really good group of people that surround Iowa swimming,” Hoeper said.
In the butterfly race, Hoeper beat her next-closest competition by around 17 seconds, and won first by five seconds in the breaststroke.
After graduating, Hoeper is heading to Indiana University to compete with the Hoosiers — a Division I university. Last year, Indiana took home the title at the Big Ten swimming championships, where Iowa placed 11th last year, and fell to last the year prior.
Hoeper said she is excited for the change of pace in Indiana, both in terms of the size of the school and the speed of the swimmers. “It’s just going to be different,” Hoeper said. “A different experience for sure, but I think it’ll be good for me.”
Over the past few years, the energy surrounding women’s sports in the state of Iowa has exploded.
While Hoeper said that energy shift has been less impactful when pertaining to high school sports, she has been actively attempting to get her classmates to attend the team’s swim meets.
“I’ve really worked on, especially as I’ve gotten older, advocating for the sport and letting people know that we have swim meets,” Hoeper said. “It’s always more fun if we have a crowd.”
Madelyn Elkins, who also competes with the varsity team, placed first in the 4×50-yard medley relay (with Hoeper) and 4×100-yard freestyle relay with Hoeper, second for the 200-yard individual medley(2:44.58), and fourth for the 100-yard freestyle (1:04.23).
Nora Bumsted, who competes with the junior varsity team, placed first in the 4×50- yard medley relay (2:30.86), second in the 4×50-yard and 4×100-yard freestyle relay (2:16.41 and 4:40.66), and third in the 100- yard backstroke (1:34.59).
Solon’s Ella Pressler is mainly focused on diving, and she placed second in the junior varsity one meter diving competition (66.95).
Elkins and Hoeper both said their experience competing with the Little Hawks has been nothing but positive. Hoeper specifically said despite the early morning practices where the swimmers have to drive from Solon to Iowa City at 5:00 a.m., the team culture and environment is worth the distance.
“I’m so happy that I get to go to City High and be able to meet these new people,” Hoeper said. “Especially in Solon, it’s so easy to get caught up in ‘small town.’ So, I feel like being able to branch out — even if it’s a little bit of a drive — has been so amazing.”
The Little Hawks improved to 2-1 on the season.