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Jessica Nichols Swims Back To State
By Jim Wieners
For the third year in a row Hazelwood West Swimmer Jessica Nichols will be competing in the Missouri State High School Activities Association Championships at the St. Peters’ Rec-Plex.
On Feb. 20-21, 3 p.m. each day, Nichols will be competing in two events, the maximum allowed by MSHSAA although she qualified to compete in three, according to DirectAthletes.com. Two of those events she qualified, the 50-Yard Freestyle and the 100-Yard Freestyle, were events she competed at state the last two years. This year she added the 100-Yard Butterfly to her qualification lists.
Preliminaries are Feb. 20 while the finals for the top 16 are Feb. 21.
Nichols, a junior, immediately qualified for the 50 Freestyle in her first meet of the season as she qualified in the Dec. 10, 2014 dual meet at Ritenour High with a 25.46-second effort. Last year Nichols took home an eight-place medal by swimming in the finals in 24.87 seconds after qualifiying with a 24.62-second prelim. Two years ago she took 14th place in 25.03 seconds after qualifying for the consolation heat in 25 seconds.
Three days later, Dec. 13, 2014 at the Ladue Invitational, Nchols quualified for state in the 100 Freestyle with a 55.86-second effort. Last year at state Nichols swam the consolation final in 54.57 seconds and a 15th place finish while swimming in the preliminaries in 54.27 seconds. She qualified for state at 100 yards two years ago but fell short of qualifying for the finals.
Finally on Jan. 6 in a home dual meet against McCluer North Nichols swam the Butterfly in 1:02.82, good enough to qualify for state if she decides to enter in this event and one of the two freestyle events. However her freestyle events she qualified have a better chance at medaling in state so the Butterfly is the least likely event to qualify due to the two indivdiual event limit.
McCluer North junior Sarah Miller has also qualifed for state, according to DirectAthletes.com and will be competing in the one-meter event Dec. 21 at 9 a.m. Miller scored 224.5 points in a Jan. 22 meet against Hazelwood West. Other Swimmers and Divers have until Feb. 14 to qualify for state because there are no districts.
