Talented breaststroke field vying for MVC championship

CEDAR FALLS – When she was seven years old, a YMCA swimming coach told Caitlin Sievers she would never be a breaststroke swimmer.

Saturday at the Mississippi Valley Conference girls' swimming championships, the Cedar Rapids Washington swimmer is among a talented group of sophomores vying for the conference breaststroke title.

'I tried so hard to be a breaststroker because that is what I wanted to be,” Sievers said. 'I just never let anyone get me down. I just wanted to swim it. I only swam for me and I swam for fun and I swam for all the people that I loved on my team.”

The swimming portion of the MVC championships begins at noon at Holmes Junior High. Madison Schoppe of Cedar Falls won Thursday's diving competition.

As a freshman last season, Sievers was an all-MVC breaststroke performer with a third-place finish at the conference meet, but missed qualifying for state by half a second. Sievers currently ranks third among MVC breaststroke swimmers with a time of 1:10.48 – just ahead of teammate Jenny Hughes, who will also compete Saturday.

Sievers battled the current MVC breaststroke leader – Mackinzee Macho of Cedar Rapids Kennedy – to a tie in a Sept. 8 dual at Kennedy. At the Marcussen Invitational at Cedar Falls on Oct. 3, Sievers was third to Macho and defending MVC runner-up Olivia Clark of Cedar Falls. All four contenders are sophomores.

'I'm excited,” Sievers said. 'No matter who wins, I think it will be awesome and I hope we all drop time. It will be fun.”

Macho enters the conference meet with a full head of steam. A strong October has pushed her into the position of MVC breaststroke favorite with a seed time of 1:08.94 that ranks fourth in the state.

'I've been working on my technique a lot,” Macho said. 'My dives have been getting a lot better and my turns have been getting a lot faster.”

Macho will also compete in the 100-yard butterfly, and she either leads or is second for the Cougars in five of eight individual events. When it comes to technique, Macho says the breaststroke continually presents a stiff challenge.

'You have to get the pull and the kick right or the stroke just won't be beneficial,” Macho said.

In the MVC team race, Macho and Kennedy figure to be the strongest candidate to interrupt Cedar Falls' string of 22 conference titles in the last 23 years. The Cougars defeated Cedar Falls at the Marcussen Invitational, then lost the head-to-head dual three days later.

'I feel we'll do really well,” Macho said.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com