Callie-Fornia Dreamin' On Such A Winter's Day
First-year swimmer Callie Metsala broke the school record in the 100-yard butterfly and became the first Cobber to compete in an "A" finals race since 2019. She led CC in the second full day at the conference championship meet.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (2/16/24)---It was a throwback to the 1960s for Concordia in the second full day at the MIAC Championship Meet. The Cobbers were doing their own remake of the classic "Callie-fornia Dreamin'" as they came up with a school record, an "A" final appearance, a "B" final appearance and several career-best swims as they moved up to seventh place in the team standings.
First-year swimmer Callie Metsala was the lead singer for Concordia on Friday. She shook off the nerves of her first conference championship meet, broke a 7-year-old school record and became the first Cobber to compete in an "A" final since 2019.
Metsala found herself California Dreamin' on such a winter's day in the 100-yard butterfly. She opened her second day of the MIAC Meet by bolting to a time of 1:00.91 in the first heat of the prelims. That mark broke the old school record of 1:01.05 set by Sarah Nelson in 2017.
Her prelim time also qualified her for the final spot in the "A" finals in the evening session. The last time that CC had a swimmer participate in the "A" finals was 2019 when Amy Warren qualified in the 200-yard butterfly.
Metsala proceeded to post a "strange but true" time in the finals of the event as she clocked an identical 1:00.91 in the evening session and placed eighth in the event.
Metsala wasn't done with her "sunshine every day" Friday as she went out and qualified for the "B" final in the 100-yard breaststroke. She touched the wall in a season-best time of 1:10.74 in the second heat and qualified for the night session by almost a full second.
Metsala ended up taking 15th place in the finals in a time of 1:10.84.
When the night session was finished, Metsala ended up posting a crucial 13 team points for CC.
The "all the leaves are brown and the skies are gray" award on the day went to Hailey Jaeger, who appeared to qualify for the "B" finals in the 100-yard backstroke only to be disqualified after the race was over. Jaeger clocked a 1:02.53, which was good for 15th place in the prelims. Unfortunately, she was judged to have passed the 15-meter mark on her first kickout.
A trio of Cobbers also found their place in the sun as they posted impressive personal marks. Haley Juetten came through with a personal-best mark of 1:16.16 in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time was 2.26 seconds faster than she swam all season.
Senior Brienna Timm and sophomore Madelyn Barlage had huge drops in time and posted season-best marks in the 200-yard freestyle. Timm clocked a 2:11.41 and Barlage touched the wall in 2:23.12. Both times were over 6 seconds faster than their previous season-best marks.
The Cobber 200-yard freestyle team of Jaeger, Metsala, Timm and Tinsley Porter finished off the day of sunshine when they clipped a full 7 seconds off the previous season-best time in the event. The quartet came home in 1:45.23 and earned 24 team points.
UP NEXT: Concordia will look to continue their California Dreamin' when they finish off the MIAC Championship Meet on Saturday, Feb. 17. Prelims start at 10:30 a.m. and finals begin at 6:30 p.m.