The Evening Star

AUBURN — Carlena Magley and Mary Kuyvenhoven share the most obvious goal for the girls state swim meet.

Both of the Baron qualifiers are aiming to finish in the top 16 in Friday night’s preliminaries, and earn the chance to return for Saturday’s finals and consolation finals.

Both should make it, according to the seeds. And both are heading to the big show with plenty of confidence after their outstanding efforts in the Concord Sectional last week.

“It’s great to have two swimmers going,” coach Lisa Barranda said. “They’ve both worked very hard. They’re both year-round swimmers, and that really makes a difference. The taper worked great for them.

“We’d like to take it one step farther and have them both come back on Saturday. We’ve got some great seeds.”

Friday’s preliminaries begin at 6 p.m. at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. Diving preliminaries and semifinals will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, with finals and consolation finals in all events slated for 1 p.m.

Magley is the 11th seed in the 50 freestyle and the 12th seed in the 100 free. Kuyvenhoven is seeded 13th in the 100 butterfly. Those places aren’t set in stone, since most swimmers will likely drop more time, but both of the Barons believe in their abilities.

Magley moved on in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.27, which beat the state standard time, and won the sectional title in the 100 in 52.88. She had reached the state standard, which earns an automatic state berth, in the preliminaries at Concord.

“I was so relieved to have that time on Thursday, she said. “Now I knew I could get it. It gave me that confidence, and I knew I could come back and swim that time on Saturday.”

She had a target on her back as the top seed for the finals in the 100, but wasn’t fazed by the pressure.

“I knew it would be close, but I just kind of controlled that race,” Magley said. “The whole time I was in the lead and I could see girls on either side of me. From the start I controlled it and I knew what I had to do.”

Kuyvenhoven didn’t have any reassurance from the preliminaries, and needed to drop time to meet the state standard in the finals of the fly. She had no doubts she would come through, however.

“I didn’t have a very good meet on Thursday. I just didn’t prepare myself for it,” she said. “It sounds weird, but I just knew I was going to go. I knew I just had to do it (Saturday).”

Magley swam last year at state in the 200 individual medley after winning the sectional championship. The KPC Media Group All-Area Prep of the Year finished 29th at Indianapolis.

Both she and Kuyvenhoven were part of the 400 freestyle relay team which placed 24th at state.

DeKalb had a twinge of disappointment this season. Despite lowering its school record by nearly three seconds in the sectional finals, the 200 freestyle relay team missed the state standard by seven-tenths of a second, and missed getting a state berth by one spot.

After the automatic qualifiers, the next fastest teams are taken to fill the field of 32 for state. DeKalb was No. 33. The Barons’ time was actually faster than some champions from other sectionals who qualified automatically.

“We thought we would make it for sure,” Magley said. “It just happened that there was one too many teams faster.”

“It was disappointing,” Barranda said. “We were so close and they dropped so much time. We’re one of the fastest 32, but there some slower sectionals, and the winners of those get in. It was a great school record, and we’re really proud of them for that.”

Still, Magley is happy to have a teammate participating in her second trip to state. The two have been helped by Carlena’s older sister, Jorja, who has been working out with them this week.

“Mary and I met our goal of making it together,” Carlena Magley said. “Having Mary there will make it more fun, and Jorja has really helped us in practice. She races us and makes us go our fastest.”

“It’s great to see Jorja out there challenging them and pushing them to do their best,” Barranda added.

Magley doesn’t mind going to state in different events this year. She feels the freestyle events have always been her strongest.

“It feels great,” she said. “It was different watching the IM, and thinking how I would have done. But to get to go in the 50 and 100 is awesome.

“I didn’t get back down to the time I had in sectional last year (in the IM). Lauren (Bly) graduated, and she had swam the freestyle events, so I decided to swim the 50 and 100. Freestyle is what I’ve always been best at.”

Kuyvenhoven said seeing her 57.88 on the clock after her race in the sectional finals was a big thrill. The state standard is 58.71.

“It’s been my goal since the beginning of the year,” she said.“I was really excited. My mom was the best. She was almost crying.”

Kuyvenhoven was introduced to the butterfly in summer swimming by Tony Oneal, the DeKalb boys coach.

“It’s Mr. Oneal’s fault,” she said. “I’d never swam (the butterfly) before. He coached our summer club, and he put me in it one time and I won. I’ve been swimming it ever since.”

Barranda said several team members are heading to Indy to cheer on the Baron qualifiers.

“We’re in the three fastest races in the meet, so it should be exciting,” the coach said.