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At the Big Nine Conference Meet held Oct. 27 at the Rochester Recreation Center, Staats won her 25th and 26th races of the season, taking the 50- and 100-yard freestyle.
Staats has won every individual race she has competed in, going 26-0. And her past two, all she did was set WSHS, pool and Big Nine Meet records.
“I was nervous,” she said, noting that the meet was held at the same pool sections are held and the meet had a section-like atmosphere. “That is the place where big decisions happen. That’s where it’s decided if you go to state or not.”
Staats broke her school record in the 50 free with a time of 24.02 seconds. What’s significant about breaking the record isn’t the time, but the timing.
Last year, Staats got the school record of 24.06 at the state meet. Last year, her best race was her last.
This year, she’s already breaking records and she hasn’t even started tapering for her state run.
“That meet could help calm me down for sections,” Staats said.
Hopefully for Staats and WSHS, history will repeat itself and she will have broken another 50-free record at state. But that’s getting too far ahead.
First, Staats needs to beat 25.03 at 3:30 p.m. — 11 a.m. for diving — today at the Section 1AA meet at the RRC to qualify for her fourth consecutive trip to state.
In no way, however, is Staats taking the section meet for granted.
“She doesn’t take any of this for granted,” WSHS coach Steve Burt said. “She has gotten to this point not just because she’s a natural athlete, but because she works hard, always makes it to practice and does what’s asked of her by the coaches. She has never questioned the coaching strategy. She just works hard and some of that has truly rubbed off on other swimmers that work equally as hard.”
Staats went to state as an eighth-grader in the 400-free relay and the 100 free, and then went in both the 50 free and 100 free each year since.
Along with breaking her record at the Big Nine Meet, Staats broke Heidi Griffith’s 20-year-old meet record of 24.46.
In the 100 free, Staats broke former Rochester John Marshall swimmer Jenny Shaughnessy’s meet record of 52.43. Shaughnessy is now an All-American swimmer at the University of Minnesota.
“She held four Big Nine Meet records,” Burt said of Shaughnessy. “Now she holds three.”
Along with the meet record, Staats put her name on the WSHS record board for the fourth time with the 100 freestyle, passing Britta Benson’s 52.69 record set in 2000.
Staats now holds the two individual freestyle records along with two freestyle relay records.
For sections, WSHS has high hopes in freestyle events.
Along with Staats, WSHS has a slew of freestylers hoping to make the cut, including Mary Bastian, MacKenzie Brosnahan, Haley Bawek and Aimee Peterson.
The cut for qualifying in the 50 free is 25.03. Bastian is at 25.45, Bawek at 26.45 and Peterson at 26.82.
The cut for the 100 free is 54.86. Bastian is at 56.19, while Brosnahan is at 55.91.
WSHS also hopes to make the cut in the 400-free and 200-free relay teams. The 400 free is made up of Bastian, Peterson, Brosnahan and Staats. The 200 free consists of Bastian, Brosnahan, Bawek and Staats.
The cut for the 400 is 3:44.15. WSHS is at 3:45.91. The cut for the 200 is 1:42.49 and WSHS is at 1:42.80.
At the Big Nine Meet, WSHS had four all-conference swimmers: Bastian in the 50 and 100 free, Brosnahan in the 100 and 200 free, Samantha Quandahl in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, and Staats in the 50 and 100 free.
