On Friday November 15^th, New Berlin West’s girls varsity State swimmers and Coach Ryan Heft traveled to Madison for the 2013 Division 2 State Swimming Competition. Senior Kayla Rassmussen swam the 50 freestyle and was part of the 200 yard freestyle relay.  Junior, Madison Tew swam the 100 and 200 yard freestyle and was also part of the 200 yard freestyle relay.  Abby Jaquish and Emily Szydlowski, both juniors, were also part of the 200 yard relay.  These excellent New Berlin West swimmers took 12^th overall earning a total of 77 points. Grafton went home as the 2013 State Champions with Shorewood following in second place.

Kayla Rasmussen took 7^th in the 50 freestyle. Rassmussen came very close to medaling, only.02 seconds away.  She also beat her personal record from her previous year at State, which was 24.97 seconds, and this year she reached 24.76 seconds.  This is a very respectable accomplishment earned West 12 points towards their final score.

When asked how Rassmussen felt about the overall experience she said, “State was very different from regular swim meets.” There is a lot of energy and she found it really fun to watch everyone’s talents

Being that this was Rasmussen’s final year on the high school swim team, she was very positive and pleased with her accomplishments she says, “It’s been four years in the making and a lot of hard work has gone into swim meets and it’s all built up to this final season and I feel like State was a great way to end my high school swimming career”

Rassmussen came into her senior year of Varsity swimming with a tore MCL injury.  She went to all the practices, but could not fully participate until more than half way through the season when she was fully healed.  Rassmussen is considering swimming club in college next year because of her sincere love for the sport.

Madison Tew blew away the competition in the 200 yard freestyle taking second place and taking third place in the 100 yard freestyle.  With these two amazing times, Tew managed to get a total of 33 points for West.  When asked how Tew felt about her accomplishments at State she modestly replied, “I am pretty happy with my how I did, in both races I achieved my best time.”

With one more year left at West, determined Tew said her goals are “to break times and take first in either event”

Emily Szydlowski, Abby Jaquish, Kayla Rassmussen and Madison Tew all participated in the 200 freestyle relay.  After a bit of confusion with the touch pad, these proud Lady Vikings placed third in the relay and earned 32 points.

When Jaquish explained her goals going into State were, “to swim 25 seconds” Instead she exceeded her goal and ended up swimming 24.8 seconds.  She also commented that Coach Heft did a good job tapering the team for a successful outcome at State.

With obvious preparation, Head Coach Heft helped lead these girls to success at State.  When asked how he thought these ladies did, he said, “Over all the girls did awesome. I was really proud of them, they all improved by at least a second.”  “All of their hard work really paid off and I thought it was a great way to end the season.”