Larsen 5th at state swim meet

MARSHALLTOWN — New school records in the 100-yard backstroke were broken this week for Ottumwa High School, but the athlete who broke those records won’t be found at the halls of OHS during the school day.

Fairfield senior Willow Larsen, who swims for the Bulldogs, broke and then re-broke the school’s record en route to a fifth-place finish at the state meet in Marshalltown.

  Buy Photo

Larsen first swam on Friday, where she qualified for Saturday’s final with a preliminary time of 58.80 seconds. At that time, that was the fastest 100-yard backstroke in Ottumwa High School girls history, breaking her previous record of 59.24 seconds.

One day later, Larsen broke that same record. In the 100-yard backstroke final, Larsen hit the wall at 58.73 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second faster than sixth-place Abby Wilcox of Dowling Catholic, and only three-hundredths of a second faster than seventh-place Mary Flikkema of Cedar Falls.

Larsen scored 14 points for Ottumwa at the meet. She was the only scorer for the Bulldogs, who finished tied for 23rd in the team race, using only Larsen’s points.

It was Larsen’s fourth year in the backstroke final. While swimming for Fairfield as a freshman, she finished 24th, and the next year, still with the Trojans, Larsen took 16th.

With Fairfield not having a swim team in her junior year, Larsen began swimming in Ottumwa colors as a junior. Last year, she finished 11th in the event.

Larsen finished her high school swimming career as not only the 100-yard backstroke record holder for Ottumwa, but also the 100-yard breaststroke record holder. In the breaststroke, her record is 1:09.25.