In a span of just a few hours Rebekah Land became a three-time State champion.
Land, a junior swimmer for the Hannibal Lady Pirates, was the first swimmer to touch the wall in three events Saturday at the State swim meet in St. Peters. Land finished in first in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard backstroke and saw the final leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay. Not a bad day at the pool.
Despite not having a diving team and only four swimmers competing in the final heats after the 400-yard freestyle relay not make it through Friday’s qualifying races, Hannibal managed to rack up 157.5 points and take home a fourth place trophy.
"I don’t think it could have gone any better than it did,” junior swimmer Meredith Voss said. “It was beautiful, I loved it.”
Hannibal competed in just six of the 12 events on the final day of competition, but the Lady Pirates made sure to rack up points. Hannibal placed no lower than 10th and brought home the highest finish in school history.
“It’s absolutely just crazy,” Hannibal head coach Rachel Smith said. “You look at the results back then, and you look at the team’s that were top-4, they have three relays in the top-8 and more than just three individual swimmers. Here we have only three individual swimmers and only two relays and we took fourth. It’s unbelievable.”
After a Friday night of qualifying for Saturday’s main event, things got started with the 200 medley relay. During prelims, the Pirates picked up the No. 4 seed. During the actual race, the team of Land, Gieseke, Gieseke and Voss maintained the fourth place with a time of 1:50.74 — besting their prelim time of 1:51.18.
The Lady Pirates took the next two events off before returning to the pool at the St. Peters Rec Plex for the 50-yard freestyle. Kay, JaLynn and Land all qualified for the 50-free with Kay swimming in the consolation heat.
Kay had the 14th best time in prelims, but moved up in the consolation heat to 10th place. Her time of 24.85 actually tied her with Anna Leonard from Glendale as the second-best time in the consolation heat.
In the championship final, Land entered the race as the No. 1 seed. Flying through the water in a pure sprint, Land touched the wall in 23.65, beating Glendale’s Liz Mace’s time of 24.31. Upon touching the wall Land stared in disbelief at the official scoreboard and began to cry.
“You really don’t know what’s going to happen in the 50-free,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to do anything in it this year.
JaLynn came in fifth in the 50-free, matching the time she posted in prelims. After a break in the action, JaLynn had another shot at the top of the podium in the 100-yard butterfly. She picked up another fifth place finish, but was disappointed in her showing in her two individual events.
“Everything went wrong for me, but you know what, I have one more year,” JaLynn said. “I’m just going to have to take what I have learned this weekend and use it for next year.”
Kay Gieseke was not disappointed by her individual performances. After the tie for 10th in the 50-free, Kay picked up 6th place in the 100-yard freestyle.
“I got personal best times in all the events I swam today, so I’m pretty happy,” Kay said.
After sitting through the two heats of the long 500-yard freestyle, it was time for event nine, the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Gieseke, Voss, Gieseke and Land was the top-seed heading into the event and the No. 1 seed after prelims.
JaLynn started things off for Hannibal and lost her goggles in the pool adding time on the clock. Voss was the next leg and helped make up time with her 25.26 swim.
Up next was Kay Gieseke. The freshman went out and had the 50-free of her life, posting 24 seconds, nearly a second faster than the time she had posted earlier in the day.
“It was mostly from the girl next to me from the Glendale team,” Kay said. “I knew that if we wanted to get first, I had to beat her. She was the one that helped me get it.”
Kay’s swim gave Hannibal a chance and Land, swimming the anchor leg, brought home the win sending the team into hysterics.
“I exploded,” Voss said. “I was crying I was so happy. Just that feeling that you have gotten first, that everything that you have worked for has paid off, just that feeling was overwhelming. Knowing that you did it with your best friends, it’s amazing.”
Land had little time to rest after the exciting win. The next event on the schedule was the 100-yard backstroke — an event where she was the No. 1 seed.
“After we won, I knew I had business to do,” Land said.
Prior to race, Land received motivation from an unlikely source: the press.
“I was walking past the media, and I had had my friend’s iPod in the whole time except for the 100-back, so I was hearing the cheers for everyone but myself — because we’re such a little team,” Land said. “I walked past the media center and I heard someone say ‘Rebekah Land is expected to win,’ and I just said, ‘I have a job to do. I didn’t hear anyone else, but for some reason, God wanted me to hear that, and that was all I needed.”
Land hopped into the pool and blew away the field in the backstroke, completing the race in 56.30 for her third gold medal of the day.
“When I saw the time, I was in shock,” she said. “I had to keep looking, because I didn’t believe it.”
The meet concludes the season for the Lady Pirates. With all of the State team coming back next year, Smith is already thinking things could be better.
“There’s always room for improvement, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do next year,” Smith said. “We’re going to even improve more next year.”
