After finishing their regular season dual meets 7-1, the Trojan Bolt swim and dive team began their postseason meets with their respective Mississippi Valley Conference meets Oct. 24 and Oct. 26. City High hosted both meets at Mercer Park Aquatic Center, where the Trojan Bolts competed against Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Washington, City High, Dubuque Hempstead, Dubuque Senior, Linn-Mar, Wahlert Catholic and Waterloo West. The Trojan Bolts finished second with 321 points, falling only to Cedar Falls with 475 points.
Diving – Oct. 24
The Trojan bolt divers competed in their conference championship Oct. 24. There, Rowan Russell ’26 placed third with 356.80 points. Kamilla Swanson ’25, who is the Trojan Bolts’ top-scoring diver, did not attend the meet, instead training for the World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships to be hosted in Brazil.
Swimming – Oct. 26
After the Trojan Bolt divers competed in their conference meet, the swimmers were eager for their turn. Two days later, on Oct. 26, the swim team traveled across town to City High’s Mercer Aquatic Center. There, West had a strong showing, finishing with at least one top-ten finish in all events.
50Y Freestyle
Averie Bilskemper ’25 – 2nd (24.91)
Bella Friessen ’25 – 5th (25.75)
100Y Freestyle
Hannah Geng ’27 – 2nd (54.00)
Friessen – 8th (57.11)
200Y Freestyle
Geng – 3rd (1:56.57)
Gretchen Gerke ’26 – 7th (2:03.49)
500Y Freestyle
Gerke – 2nd (5:29.55)
100Y Backstroke
Megan O’Neill ’25 – 5th (1:04.62)
Sophia Luo ’28 – 7th (1:08.03)
Gabby Cwiertny ’28 – 9th (1:08.69)
100Y Breaststroke
Bilskemper – 3rd (1:10.51)
Emelia Greuter ’26 – 10th (1:15.20)
100Y Butterfly
Berkley Dismang ’27 – 9th (1:05.34)
200Y Individual Medley
O’Neill – 6th (2:21.23)
200Y Freestyle Relay
3rd (1:42.76)
400Y Freestyle Relay
2nd (3:46.41)
200Y Medley Relay
8th (2:02.61)
9th (2:03.49)
After a successful conference meet, the team is looking forward to the rest of their postseason. Junior Myra Crawford notes that the team has more to come.
“A lot of people are swimming their season’s best times today, so that’s really exciting,” Crawford said. “The season’s not over yet, so we’re excited to see how our girls do at state.”
The Trojan Bolts will compete in their next postseason meet, regionals, on Nov. 7 and Nov. 9 for diving and swimming, respectively. From there, apart from automatic qualifiers, the top 32 in the state progress to the state meets, held on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16.
