There was no choice for Jordan Hubbard.
When Minot High School sophomore McKenna Brown, the team's best swimmer, was unable to fight off a sprained ankle, Hubbard had to fill her place. The junior had to improve on times that had plateaued earlier in the season.
She met the challenge in the Majettes' 108-78 senior night win Tuesday against Williston at Magic City Campus.
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Adam Lawson/MDN
Sophomore Alexis Clark swims the third leg of Minot High School’s win in the 200-yard medley relay against Williston on Tuesday at Magic City Campus.
Hubbard swam the first leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay in Brown's place. She glided quickly through the water, putting up a 28.79-second split that left her team only nine-hundredths of a second off the lead. From there, her teammates took over and helped the team win the race by more than two seconds.
"I definitely thought I swam better than I had been," Hubbard said. "It felt really good. ... I was excited. I started off the season there and then when I plateaued they moved me back down so it was nice to be back up there again."
Hubbard was originally set to swim the third leg for the Majettes' 'B' team and only found out she was on the top squad after swimming her 100 freestyle near the end of the meet.
"She got a really good time," said junior Devin Scott. "She did very well under a lot of pressure."
The race was the second relay for Hubbard. Her 200 medley relay team had a slim lead when she jumped in the pool in the meet's first event. Hubbard - swimming freestyle - was the anchor leg and held off Williston's Paige Fisketjon by four tenths of a second.
Minot won seven of the 11 events that followed.
"I'm a big believer in going after the first race," MHS coach Dan Hinton said. "Any time you can win the first event, it really does set a positive tone for the rest of the meet."
Scott won four races for the Majettes, though she can thank a teammate for one of her victories. Freshman Emily Hamel leaned forward before the starting gun of the 50 freestyle. While she caught herself before leaping out of the pool, she was disqualified for her flinch.
Hamel ended up swimming the fastest time in the race, even though it was all for naught. Scott said she would have liked to have beaten Hamel without the disqualification but that Hamel isn't an ordinary freshman.
"I know I wasn't getting 25s as a freshman," Scott said. "I'm so proud of her. I swim in a lane at practice with McKenna and Emily and it's just really motivating to have these younger girls with such fast times. It really makes you want to work hard."
Scott swam the 100 butterfly in 1:04.41 seconds and was on the winning 200 freestyle relay.
"I've gotten my fastest times today," Scott said. "I cut a little bit of time on my 50, which I'm very happy about that because a 50 is very hard to cut time on. I cut about a second on my 100 fly, which I've been wanting to do that for the past few meets. I'm definitely very happy with today."
Brown tested her ankle out in the 200 freestyle. After a fifth-place finish, she didn't race the rest of the meet. Hinton said he expects her back when the Majettes travel to Mandan on Monday.