Relaxed, Excited and Ready to Fly
Owatonna freshman Logan Norrid is excited to be going back to the state swimming meet this week. She got over the nerves of competing against older girls last year. She's excited for the chance to compete against bigger, stronger, faster competitors. She hopes to reset her own school records in the two events she's qualified to swim during the meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Mostly, she says, "I'm excited. I'm just going to go out there and have fun."
Norrid finished 12th in the 100 butterfly at the 2018 state meet setting a new school record in the preliminaries and consolation finals. She set another school record in the 100 fly and in the 200 individual medley during the section meet to qualify for both at state. The top 16 finishers Friday advance to Saturday's finals. Action begins at 6 pm each night.
You should be able to hear the true excitement in her voice in the interview below (click on her name). Norrid had to overcome an injury this season. She hit her head on the wall while swimming the back stroke and missed about three weeks. Huskies coach Isaiah Fuller said she had to do a different sort of taper for section due to that.
It was a difficult time for Norrid, "It was tough for me to overcome that, sitting in a dark room for three weeks was tough. I was just so sad I wasn't in the water. It was kind of heart-breaking because that's what I love. I love swimming."
Fuller says it's impressive to see her advance in two events out of Section 1AA, "It's so tough with those big schools. So we're fighting on that first day to bring somebody back. For Logan to come back and defend her 100-fly title and then qualify in 200-IM was something special."
Norrid wants to take a casual approach to the meet, but still has lofty goals to better her school records in the events, "Last season at the state meet I did pretty good. I know I was a little stressed because I know there's a lot of girls there that are really big and really fast. I was just nervous because I was an eighth-grader going in against all these older kids. I used them to push me in my race though and it turned out to be for my benefit and I did amazing there."
"This year I'm laid back. I care about how I do, but I'm going to go in and act like I didn't care so that I'm relaxed. I swim a lot better when I'm relaxed."
Tickets to attend the state swimming meet are $10 and go on sale at 4:30 pm at the aquatic center. Officials advise giving yourself extra time to find a place to park as multiple events are going on at the University of Minnesota this weekend.
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