Olympic hopeful breaks three records at conference swim meet
- Olympic hopeful wins four first-place finishes on Feb. 1 and 2.
- Woodward broke two individual records during the meet and helped break one team record.
By Matt Bishop, Staff Writer
Edmond Memorial senior swimmer, and 2008 Olympic hopeful, Samantha Woodward drowned the competition en route to four first-place finishes on Feb. 1 and 2.
OCCC hosted the 2008 Mid-State/Metro Swimming Conference Championship, which included 13 high schools from the metro area.
Woodward broke two individual records during the meet and helped break one team record.
She shattered the record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:49.94.
The previous record was 1:57.20, more than a seven-second difference.
Woodward also claimed the record for the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.34, beating the old record of 51.21 by .87 seconds.
The Edmond Memorial girls team broke the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Kaitlin Kliewer, Jill Enge, Rachel Prince and Woodward put together a time of 1:41.38 to beat the record set by the 2007 Edmond Memorial girls team of 1:42.78.
Woodward’s other relay team won the 200-yard medley with a time of 1:54.66.
Woodward said she has been swimming for about 10 years and her dream is to compete in the Olympics.
“It’s been in the last couple years that I have realized my dream could come true.”
She is less than six months away from the Olympic qualifiers that will be held in June at Omaha, Neb.
Woodward said she will compete in a preliminary round, then semifinal round, and then a final round where the top two finishers will compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Woodward competed in the 2007 Summer Pan-Am Games and said it was motivation to keep her dream alive.
“Competing in the Pan-Am games was a great experience and made me want to keep going for more.”
Woodward will continue her run for the Oklahoma State Championship when she comes back to OCCC Feb. 15 and 16.
“I am happy with my performance at this point and I am really excited for state,” Woodward said.
Although Woodward contributed to much of her teams success, the Bulldogs of Memorial finished second in the team rankings with 526, just three points shorts of the crosstown rival Huskies of Edmond North, who took first with 529.
Edmond North also took first in the boy’s rankings with 567 points, 154 more than the second place Norman North.
StaffWriter Matt Bishop can be reached at SeniorWriter@occc.edu.
