Corn Palace Invitational: Four Mitchell Aquatic Club competitors win high-point awards during home meet

More than 250 swimmers competed in the Mitchell Aquatic Club’s 7th annual outdoor Corn Palace Invitational over the weekend at the Mitchell Aquatic Center in Mitchell, including 45 MAC swimmers.

Coach Kyle Margheim said it is important for the Mitchell swimmers to be able to compete in front of a home crowd.

“They get to have some of their friends and family members come and see them that maybe wouldn’t be able to drive an hour or two,” he said. “It’s exciting for them that they can show the community how hard they work.”

Margheim said the event drew a good size crowd of Mitchell swimming fans, which helped the MAC swimmers.

“Just like any sporting event, when there’s a big crowd and you hear cheering you get excited and use that energy,” he said.

Although team scoring was not kept, Margheim said four MAC swimmers won high-point awards. High-point awards are given to the swimmer in a specific age group who scores the most total points during an event with a maximum of eight events.

Brynn Palmer (9-10 girls’), Gage Nelson (11-12 boys’), Cailey Scott (11-12 girls’) and Tevynn Wadell (13-14 girls’) all won high-point awards at the event and Ethan Huber and Christian Fossum each finished second in their divisions, according to Margheim. Full results were not available when this edition went to press.

Margheim said the top finishers for the high-point awards are a good sign for the MAC program, which is trying to build all-around swimmers.

“It just shows that the swimmers that we have are good and not just at one or two events,” he said. “They can be competitive in all their events and not just their best one or two.”

Of the top-finishers, Margheim said Brynn Palmer made big improvements and finished a few events five to 10 seconds faster than in her previous meets.

“She’s just one of those kids that is just a workhorse at practice,” Margheim said. “In the last year she has really started to swim well at meets and that showed up this weekend.”

Margheim said he was pleased with the results from all of the Mitchell swimmers.

“I thought they all performed really well,” he said. “It’s good to see what we’ve been working on and the improvements they’ve made.”

Margheim said 16-year-old Mary Kroupa was one swimmer that outperformed expectations. Kroupa is competing in her first season with MAC.

“Not having seen her swim before I didn’t know what to expect,” Margheim said. “This was her first meet swimming for MAC and I thought she really stood out.”

Kroupa qualified for the state meet in a couple of events and narrowly missed out on a couple of others, according to Margheim.

The state meet takes place July 27-29 in Rapid City and Margheim said he expects around 30 Mitchell swimmers to compete in events.

Tags: sports, updates, mitchell, swimming