Clayton Swimmer's Relay Team to Compete at Nationals

senior Elizabeth Krane for the USA Swimming national swim meet. Now, she and her teammates on the Clayton Shaw Park Tideriders—Mary Beth Howard, Maddie Wall and Annie Goessling—will have the opportunity to participate in that meet when they travel Aug. 8 to nationals in Palo Alto, CA, to compete in the 400-freestyle relay.

“We’re so excited, we’ve put in a lot of hard work this year and it paid off finally,” Krane said. “I think we’ll have a lot of fun in California.”

The national meet will be held at Stanford University, one of the premier swimming university’s in the U.S. Krane and her teammates have competed in meets at St. Peters and Indianapolis this summer to try to hit national qualifying times.  

“It’s a fast pool and a great facility,” Krane said. “There’ll be a lot of fast swimming there."

The 400-freestyle relay team qualified for the national meet last weekend at the Region VIII USA Swimming sectional meet at the University of Missouri in Columbia. The team didn’t compete, but in adding each swimmer's times in the 100-freestyle, they were able to hit a national qualifying time.  

“We’re the girls with the highest attendance, we put in a lot of hard work and we have a great camaraderie,” Krane said. “It’s because we’re here all of the time and push each other. We’re all proud of each other and supportive.”

Howard, a resident of Town and Country who graduated from this spring, has qualified for national meets with relay teams, but she’s never competed in California before.

“I’m really excited," Howard said. "I think we want to get our best times and try our hardest."

Howard has competed with the Tideriders for 12 years.

“I’ve had just about every coach this team has had, and I like the way they train us,” she said. “I feel like this team is very close like a family.”

The relay combo started competing together a little over a decade ago when Howard joined the team.

“We’ve been together since we’ve been on the team,” she said. “We’re almost always in the same lane. We’re great teammates who push each other.”

Howard will continue her swimming career next year at the University of Illinois, a Division I school in Champaign, IL. She said she hopes to continue and improve her times.  

Maddie Wall, a resident of Ladue who attends , has competed in four national meets in the last three years in individual events. At the sectional meet in Columbia, Wall turned in personal records in the 100-freestyle (59.7 seconds) and 200-butterfly (2:25.59). She has high expectations for the 400-freestyle relay team. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to be able to compete at a summer national meet,” Wall said. “They’re much harder to qualify for, and I think we’re all really excited. I’m hoping that we will hit a best time, set a team record, and for all of us to set an individual personal record.”

Wall, Howard, Krane and Goessling all swim a variety of legs. Wall said she didn’t know who would swim which leg at nationals, but the issue didn’t seem to concern her.

“For the 400-freestyle relay, we all try very hard, and we’ll all work to keep our spot no matter where we are,” she said. “But I personally like swimming second, third or fourth because I might have to catch someone ahead of me.”

Goessling, a resident of Ladue who attends MICDS High School, could not immediately be reached for comment.