It’s been another outstanding season in the pool for Norwalk senior Shae Drymon and sophomore Emma Sizemore, who are both members of the Des Moines Lincoln girls swim team.

Drymon and Sizemore will look to finish on a high note this weekend when they both compete in the 57th Iowa Girls State Swimming and Diving Meet at the Marshalltown YMCA/YWCA. The state swimming preliminary meet will begin today at 11:00 a.m., followed by the state swimming finals Saturday at noon.

Participating in her fourth state meet, Drymon has qualified in the 50-yard freestyle event. She will also swim the anchor leg of the Rails’ 200 medley relay and lead off the 400 freestyle relay. Sizemore, who also qualified for state last year, will swim the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle while competing on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

Both Norwalk girls say that the sharing agreement involving Lincoln, Norwalk and Carlisle for swimming has been great, allowing them to meet new people and create memories while being part of a complete team.

Sizemore says, “The people are really important because swimming is such a mentally and physically tough sport that having a good community and good people around you really make it a lot easier.”

Sizemore’s favorite swimming event – the 1,000 – isn’t sanctioned at the high school level, but she also enjoys the 500 and 200 and is looking forward to improving her personal-best times from last week’s regional meet. Drymon, who prefers the shorter, fast-paced races like the 50 and 100 freestyle, hopes to end her career with another ‘PR’ this weekend and have some fun competing.

“I just want another personal best,” she said. “This has been the goal the whole year. We’ve been looking forward to it and just competing really well.”

Sizemore and Drymon’s individual events will start with prelims on Friday. The relays are all timed finals on Saturday.