Last year, junior swimmer Rachel Kurtz missed going to nationals by a mere one-hundredth of a second. This year, however, things are different.
At the GLIAC championships a couple of weeks ago, Kurtz earned a B-cut in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. On Feb. 26, those B-cuts became a ticket to nationals for Kurtz. The national meet will take place in Geneva, Ohio from March 12-15.
Hillsdale hasn’t had many swimmers go to nationals; since 2002 only two have gone. Most recently, school record holder Linda Okonkowski ’12 represented the Chargers. The national meet is extremely competitive and draws only the best swimmers. To earn her spot in the meet, Kurtz swam some pretty impressive times at the GLIAC championships: 23.28 in the 50 and 51.19 in the 100. Both of those are school records, and no swimmer in Charger history has even approached those times.
Despite her impressive performances, Kurtz will have her work cut out for her. In the 50, she is seeded 7th and will be competing against stiff competition (two of her opponents qualified with times under 23 seconds). The time spread for the event is extremely tight: 16 girls are spaced out within eight tenths of a second of each other. Kurtz’s opponents in the 100-meter are equally as formidable; the top ranked swimmer is seeded with an incredible time of 49.71.
Even though Kurtz will have to drop a significant amount of time (fractions of a second are a lot in sprint events) if she wants to place, she is no stranger to dropping lots of time at once and swimming big personal records.
Over spring break, while the vast majority of Hillsdale students will be lounging in the sun and minimizing physical activity, Kurtz will be swimming the most important race of her life so far.
