Stillwater senior defends title

Stillwater senior Maggie Keefer can't recall the dive that fractured her skull in June. Now she won't be able to forget the best performance of her career.

Keefer received a perfect 10 from one judge on her 10th dive en route to the Class 2A title Saturday at the girls' state swimming & diving meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. The defending state champion finished with a score of 451.55 points.

"This is the best day I have ever had," Keefer said. Her first-place finish vaulted the defending champion Ponies into the top spot in the team standings, a place where they would stay the rest of the night.

"She dove to her capability today," Stillwater coach Brian Luke said. "I didn't think she would be diving for us again when she was laying in that hospital."

Keefer hit her head on a dive on the 7-meter platform at the Aquatic Center during a practice. She had five plates placed in her head during surgery.

"I asked them if I could dive the next week when I was in the hospital, and they told me, 'No,'" Keefer said. She returned to practice with the team in the middle of September. "I wanted to start diving sooner, but my headaches kept dragging on."

Teammate junior Hannah Bowen was a double-winner, taking first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. The Ponies wound up with 265 points, 50 more than runner-up Edina.

"Winning as a team means so much more than winning as an individual," said Keefer, who signed a letter of intent with the Gophers earlier this month.

Sartell-St. Stephen freshman Marisa Wood looked up at the scoreboard in total disbelief.

One day after setting the Class 1A state record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:50.88, Wood turned in an identical performance. She equaled her state mark in the finals of the event, setting an early tone to an unbelievable day for the Sabres.

"One of my biggest goals coming into this meet was to get the record, but to have the same exact time," Wood said. "I was extremely shocked with my time yesterday, and tried to do the same thing. Both races were identical."

State records weren't the only thing on the mind of Wood and her teammates. The Sabres won their first state championship with 236 points. It stopped Visitation's run of four consecutive titles.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Sabres senior Kate Hellie said. She teamed up with Wood and sophomores Tarin Anding and Molly Peichel to win the 200 freestyle relay with a record time of 1:36.14. "The records are just a bonus."

Wood later won the 500 freestyle in 4:58.92. She broke her own record in the event during the preliminaries on Friday with a time of 4:56.2.

Monticello sophomore Caley Oquist didn't know whether to smile or cry after breaking the 100 backstroke record with a winning time of 56.62.

"I want to cry, but I'm so happy that I can't," said Oquist, who broke the mark of 56.72 set by Breck runner-up Taylor Foster in 2008. Teammate junior Amanda Paulson also established a state record in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.37.

"We had no idea what we were going to get from her coming into this meet," Monticello coach Tom Cannon said. "She was really sick with the flu going into the taper."

Oquist, sick for a month, showed no ill effects at the state meet.

"We are thinking about having her get sick every year," Cannon joked. "She is truly amazing."