Swimming and diving: UT's Busch queen of her pool
- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
By Shannon Heaton | Sunday, October 12, 2008 |
Alexa Harris has had a big week this week as Moline’s homecoming queen.
But the ruler of the United Township pool, Panthers senior Alyssa Busch, dethroned Harris, if only slightly, in the one head-to-head matchup the two Illinois metro swimming titans had in the 14th annual Panther Invitational Saturday afternoon.
“You just kind of want to defend your home pool, just like basketball where you defend your home court, or anywhere,” Busch said of her win in the 100-yard backstroke, where she finished in exactly 1 minute, .76 seconds ahead of Harris.
The race was a tight one, as Busch held the lead through the first 50 yards. Harris had a huge turn at the three-quarter mark and drew even, but Busch put on a surge in the final 15 yards for the win.
“A lot of times I’d go out fast, but I’d be coming back in or around 31 (seconds) and I’m trying to push though that,” Busch said. “I need to go out faster, but I’d like to come back, hopefully, in 29 or a low 30.”
Busch won three events, leading off the winning Panther 200 medley relay and then beating Clinton’s Taylor Rippon by three seconds in the 100 butterfly.
But Harris had her moment to shine, too, dominating the 200 individual medley with a nine-second win over Clinton’s Libby Hess, with a time of 2:15.56.
“It was tough to be focused on just one thing; being crowned queen, you just have a lot of things to do. But this has been in the back of my mind,” Harris said of her day. “We worked hard all week. My IM time was not my best, but I didn’t have a lot of a push.”
Hess, too, had her chance to shine, but it didn’t come until the 100 breaststroke, when she became the third Quad-Cities area swimmer to break the 1:10 mark in the event with a time of 1:09.76.
“I wasn’t very good at it when I first started,” Hess said of the stroke. “I worked on it with my dad, and with my coaches on the team, and I just got better with that. I want to go 1:08. That’s our (school) record, and I want to get that record this year.”
Host UT was third and Moline fourth, with Clinton sixth. All of the teams, though, were outdistanced by first-time Panther Invite winner Galesburg, which won its only event in the 200 free relay.
“We’ve never won this meet, and it’s the first time we won because it was a team win, not just individuals doing very, very well,” Galesburg coach Ray VanHootegem said. “I’ve always said, since I started coaching, that if we keep improving, we’ll start winning.”
Moline’s Shannon Doh (50, 100 freestyles) was a double winner for the Maroons, and Normal Community’s Caitlin Hamilton broke a 22-yearold pool record, as well as a six-year-old meet record, in the 500 freestyle, which she swam in 4:59.16.
del.icio.us
Digg
NewsVine
Fark
redditMore Stories By Shannon Heaton
» More Varsity Stories
Highest Rated Articles from the last 7 Days
- Technology News Articles
- Computers, MP3, Phones & More. See Product Pics, Specs & Reviews.
- www.NexTag.com
- online health articles
- Visit Our Top Sites About online health articles Here.
- AllHealthCarePlace.com
- Cheap Airfare
- Compare multiple travel sites. Discount web fares made easy.
- www.LowFares.com
- Ads by Yahoo!
