Natalia Woods, Grace Lieneman, and other prep notes

Natalia Woods was all smiles. Not only did she record her fifth fastest time ever in an event she started swimming this season in her high school.

“I don't feel tired,” Woods said. “That's the best thing. Now I don't feel like I'm going to go home and collapse.”

For the first time in four years, Woods left Friday afternoon's state qualifying round at the Devaney Sports Center with a little gas left.

This season's focus on two sprints, the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle, has been a welcome side effect. Although she is a two-time champion in both the 200 meters and the 500 meters, she has only swam at the state championships the past three seasons.

Her 100 time on Friday, “50.95 seconds,'' ranks fifth in history. She also won the 50 meters, swimming in 23.58 seconds.

When it came time for the relay at the end of the tournament, it was clear that he had more energy left. Woods ran an impressive 23.43 seconds for the 50 split in the 200 relay, but she thinks she can run even faster tomorrow.

“If it's in the 50s, I feel like I can go faster tomorrow,” Woods said. “My turns (after 25 yards) weren't good today. … I felt like I could run faster in the 100 meters. Relay, I'll definitely be faster tomorrow.”

Woods' biggest challenger in both sprints will be city foe Avali Wischhoff (Lincoln East).

Wischoff's 50-meter run of 24.11 seconds was 0.53 seconds behind Woods, and the Spartan's 100-meter run of 52.08 seconds was 1.13 seconds behind the four-time state champion.

For “splash and dash” races like the 50 meters that take less than 30 seconds from start to finish, don't count Wischhoff out.

“She's a player we trust in that race,” East co-head coach Emma McEnterfer said. “I've never excluded her kids, especially a player like Avari, who we've worked with all season. … I've never excluded her from anything. plug.”

Warriors competing in a team race

Don't expect another tie in the team race.

A year after sharing the team title with Omaha Marian, Omaha Westside won its 20th championship swim on Friday and took full control of the leaderboard. The Warriors qualified with a total of 27 swims. Marian swam a total of 16 times (in the gold medal race she swam 11 times) which placed her in second place.

“I thought we had a really good first day,” Westside coach Andy Rider said. “We were able to show our depth throughout every race. Some kids had the biggest drops of their lives today, while others were just at their best. ”

Lienemann advances steadily to the southwest

Lincoln Southwest got off to a shaky start Friday. The Silver Hawks had just learned that they had been disqualified for a false start after “swimming out of the gourd” in the 200-meter medley relay to open the tournament.

“It's tough. We're swimming great and then all of a sudden they say we got a DQ,” Southwest coach Tiffany Hale said. “It brings us down a little bit and shocks the swimmers.”

Grace Lienemann fought back a few minutes later with a solid performance, swimming the 200 freestyle in 1:54.39 to take third place and shave more than a second off her qualifying time.

Lienemann said he was surprised by his time.

“It was tough, but I was proud,” Lieneman said. “Honestly, I wasn't expecting to run 54 (seconds) so I was really excited. I always tell guys to try to be as positive as possible and take everything with a grain of salt. It happened, but I still have to swim the rest of the meet.”

Southwest then got off to a false start in the 200-meter freestyle relay, but qualified for first place in the 400-meter relay with a time of 3:37.27.

Saturday's championship begins at 11 a.m. Saturday and will be televised on Nebraska Public Media.