Nov 14, 2025
PHOTO BY TROY HYDE/NEWTON NEWS – Marshalltown junior Harlie Thatcher completes a back dive to open Thursday’s state diving competition at the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City. Thatcher finished in 24th place in her state meet debut.
IOWA CITY — The Marshalltown girls’ swimming and diving squad is going to score some points at state for the first time in a few years.
The Bobcats pushed two individuals through Thursday’s preliminaries at the Iowa High School Girls State Championships at the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, joining Marshalltown’s three relay teams for Friday’s finals.
Marshalltown junior Leia Hernandez qualified for Friday’s finals in the 100-yard freestyle with her new personal-best time of 53.9 seconds. Hernandez was seeded ninth for the event and goes into Friday 10th after lowering her regional time (54.03) once again with a second-team all-state (places 9-16) guaranteed.
Sophomore Adele Beek will be in the same boat after swimming a new personal-best time of 1:08.55 in the 100 breaststroke. Beek was seeded 12th and qualified 11th for Friday’s finals. MHS senior Rachel Case also lowered her all-time best clocking of 1:12.94, finishing Thursday’s preliminary race in 1:11.74 to improve from 24th seed to 21st place.
Hernandez’s other individual race was the 50 freestyle, in which she finished 23rd with a personal-record time of 24.96. She was seeded 19th and slid back despite lowering her qualifying time.
Sophomore Emma Case qualified for two individual events and ended up in 32nd place in both races. Case swam 2:23.38 in the 200 individual medley and 1:04.23 in the 100 butterfly to miss out on Friday’s top-16 finals.
All four aforementioned Bobcat swimmers will participate on Friday as part of the three relay races. Marshalltown’s quartet of Addison Elmore, Beek, Emma and Rachel Case are seeded 16th in the 200 medley relay; Rachel Case, Beek, Drea Ceren and Hernandez are ranked 17th going into the 200 freestyle relay finals; and Elmore, Libby Meyer, Ceren and Hernandez have the 21st-best time going into the last race of the season.
Friday’s swimming finals start at noon in Iowa City. Marshalltown’s last top-16 finisher was Lesli Waltermire, who placed 16th in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle in 2022.
MHS junior Harlie Thatcher represented the Bobcats during the state diving competition as well, finishing in 24th place. Thatcher finished with a five-dive score of 159.15 and missed the cut as the field of 32 divers was reduced to 20. The 20th-placed diver scored 164.90, just out of Thatcher’s reach on this night.
Seeded 18th in the state while qualifying 15th, Thatcher was unable to match the scores she posted during the regional meet a week earlier in Marshalltown. Thatcher’s second dive at state — the back somersault with 1 1/2 twists — got her a total score of 37.95, just shy of the 42.55 she scored at regionals.
It was still Thatcher’s best scoring dive of her five, followed by her finale — a forward somersault with 2 twists. It scored 34.5 points to bring her total to its final 159.15.
Thatcher’s advancement to state marked the 10th season in a row the Bobcats got a diver to the finale.
Camryn Russell of Grinnell successfully defended her state diving title with an 11-dive total of 465.50. Holli Hetzer and Emory Braunschweig-Norris, both of Southeast Polk, finished second and third with respective scores of 448.75 and 447.50.
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