MARSHALLTOWN – They’ve got no pool of their own and not much tradition.

And the Linn-Mar Lions girls swimmers don’t  get much respect either, at least according to team leader Emilie Berg.

“We’re always considered the underdogs,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

Why, indeed, after Berg and fellow sprinters Lizzie Adams, Lauren Dalecky and Alex Dunn staked claim to the 200-yard freestyle relay title at the high school state championship meet Saturday afternoon at the Marshalltown YMCA.

It helped boost the Lions to eighth place in the final team standings behind runaway winner Ames.

Their 1:38.60 mark was a half-second better than their meet-leading qualifying time and just .05 seconds faster than second place West Des Moines Valley.

The Linn-Mar girls didn’t know they’d won the championship until official times were posted, since they swam a different heat than Valley.

“We had the best time going into this,” Berg said. “We wanted to make sure we held onto that spot.”

She also placed third in the 100 breaststroke, her strongest event.

And, with Nicole Larsen in the foursome instead of Adams, the Lions took sixth in the 200 medley relay.

“This was my first time getting to the podium” said Berg, a senior. “To get there three times and win a state championship is just awesome.”

Linn-Mar Coach Chad Derlein, in his 10th year at the school over two different stints, said Saturday’s performance was the team’s best ever.

“And everybody dropped their times today,” he said “I’m so proud of these girls. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“We might be underdogs, but I think today we proved ourselves."

The fact that Linn-Mar has no school pool and holds practice at Coe College has helped morale, Berg said.

“We do a lot of bonding on those bus rides to Coe,” she said. “Everyone on our team is really close.”

Going into the meet, it was thought Kennedy might compete for as high as fifth but instead settled for 12th place.

“We came up short of our team and individual goals,” said Cougar Coach John Ross.  “But we competed real well and had a fantastic championship meet. Last year, we finished 16th, so we improved in that category.

“We’ve got a great group of young ladies, and we had a terrific year.”

Ames set state meet records in the first and last events and roared to the championship.

Ames won its second straight title with 336 points, easily breezing past West Des Moines Valley's 246. Cedar Falls (177) was third, West Des Moines Dowling (152) fourth and Pleasant Valley (141) fifth.

Linn-Mar finished eighth with 114.5 points. The Lions were in fifth place heading into the final event, but failed to place in the 400 freestyle relay.

Kennedy was 12th, Washington tied for 23rd and Jefferson tied for 31st.

Washington sophomore Jackie Hughes turned in the top individual performance by a Metro swimmer, finishing second in the 500 freestyle. She also was 14th in the breaststroke.

Jefferson senior Kailey Drake was 10th in the 50 free.

Kennedy's top individual finisher was Lexi Scharmer, who was 10th in the 100 butterfly. The Cougars placed all three relays, including a seventh place in the medley, ninth in the 400 free relay and 10th in the 200 free relay.

Ames won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:46.16, eclipsing the mark the Little Cyclones set last year by .51 seconds. Ames knocked more than a second off the previous record in the 400 freestyle relay, churning the final event in 3:31.65 to break the mark set by Valley in 2005.

The only other meet record broken was by Mason City junior Emma Sougstad in the 200 individual medley. Her time of 2:03.13 earned automatic All-American honors and broke the former record by more than a second. Sougstad also won the 100 butterfly.

Final results