Until Thursday.
With her teammates cheering on at an ear-splitting level, Urban touched the wall in 1:04.38 — more than a full second clear of the Division 3 qualifying mark.
“I’ve been so close for the past couple months,” she said. “It’s kind of been mocking me.
“The pressure is off now.”
Urban was already part of qualifying relay teams this season, but wanted to meet the individual mark as well. She now joins Anna Kutschke (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle) and Syriah Dobis (100 butterfly) as Manistee’s individual qualifiers.
“That’s a great relief, great relief for her,” said Manistee coach Corey Van Fleet. “She was starting to worry about it. Now she can go back to work.”
Urban’s performance was one of a number of individual highlights as the Chippewas won a double dual, beating Muskegon Catholic Central 118.5-61.5 and Oscoda 138-45 at the Paine Aquatic Center. The win against MCC gave Manistee a second straight regular season title in the Coastal Swim Conference, which counts as 50 percent toward the overall title. The Chippewas, who finished 4-0 in the regular season, essentially locked up the regular season crown with a narrow win against Spring Lake last week and Van Fleet mixed up his lineup Thursday.
“I think our girls had fun,” he said. “We had some great swims. A lot of kids had career-best times tonight.”
Manistee won 10 of the 12 events overall, including all three relays, and Dobis and Kutschke were part of four first places each.
Lillie Edwards, who had already qualified for the diving regional, broke her own school record with a score of 211.55.
“It was like I couldn’t even speak afterwards I was so happy,” she said. “I feel like I’ve progressed a lot this season.”
Manistee’s Krista Stenberg also scored for the first time and took fourth in diving.
“Lilly was great — a school record and it set her up pretty good for the conference championships,” Van Fleet said. “I thought Krista did a great job for her first time out.”
The 200-yard medley relay team of Urban, Maddy Applegarth, Dobis and Kutschke took first, as did the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Jessica Gustad, Applegarth, Dobis and Kutschke, and the 400-yard freestyle squad of Gustad, Dobis, Kutschke and Sara Wehrmeister.
Kutschke won the 50 freestyle, Taylor Antal took first in the 200 freestyle, Dobis won the 100 butterfly while setting a personal record, Allie Zimmerman took first in the 500 freestyle and Sarah Chandler won the 100 breaststroke.
