Fairfield’s Larsen swims her way to state

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield’s Willow Larsen is heading to Iowa high school swimming’s biggest stage on Friday in the state meet at Marshalltown.

The Fairfield student, who competes for Ottumwa’s swim team, qualified for the state meet after finishing fifth in the 100-yard backstroke at Saturday’s regional swim meet in Marion.

Larsen finished the event in a time of 59.37, which was the fifth fastest time of the meet and the 11th fastest time across the state.

Ottumwa as a whole finished eighth in the regional meet with 108 points.

  Buy Photo

The regional title went to 2022 defending state champions, Waukee, who scored 576 points.

Out of the blocks, Larsen held a slight lead, before extending the gap through the 25 yard mark.

By the halfway point in the event it was a two person race and at the last turn, the race became for second as Larsen pulled away in the heat.

In her first race of the day, the 200-yard freestyle, Larsen just narrowly missed the state mark. She clocked a time of 2:02.97 in the event.

Larsen also competed in the 400-yard freestyle team.

  Buy Photo

With Larsen kicking off the relay, followed by Finley Johnson, Lilly Morrison and Ava Johnson the quartet swam to a sixth-place finish in a time of 3:55.81.

Unfortunately, the time was just a second off the state meet cutoff.