Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Aurora Roghair had a day to remember at last year’s Mississippi Valley Conference meet.

Roghair won a pair of individual events, setting meet records in both, and was part of two winning relay teams helping West High win the team title and earning divisional athlete of the year honors.

Somehow Roghair managed to post an even more impressive performance on Saturday in her return to the MVC championships.

Roghair set meet records in all four events she competed in on Saturday, repeating as Mississippi Division athlete of the year while helping West High claim its second consecutive MVC championship.

“It was a lot of fun because there was a lot of good competition,” Roghair said. “We really just wanted to race at this meet and our times were super good so that’s exciting.”

As a sophomore Roghair set meet records in the 200 and 500 freestyle at the MVC event.

On Saturday she broke her own meet record in the 500 freestyle by more than five seconds, winning in a time of 4:57.35.

“I enjoy the 500,” Roghair said. “It’s a weird event, it’s kind of a mid-distance so you have to sort of sprint it I think it’s a lot fun and it goes by pretty fast which is surprising.”

After setting a meet record in the 200 last season Roghair switched it up and went to the 100 freestyle this year.

She responded by winning in a meet-record time of 51.99 breaking the previous MVC record of 52.38 that had stood since 1997. 

“It got to do the 100 free for the first time at that meet and that was fun,” Roghair said. “It was something different and that was a lot of fun.”

Just a junior Roghair already holds conference meet records in three individual events. That versatility is part of what makes Roghair so valuable on a West High team that is among the best in the state.

“If you look at what Aurora will end up being recruited for college it will be the 200, 500 and 1,000 for dual meets and then the 1,650 but she is just versatile,” West High coach Byron Butler said. “At an Iowa high school meet I am confident at most meets that she can win seven out of the eight individual events.”

Roghair also helped West High set a pair of conference records in relay events.

She was a part of the 200 freestyle relay team that won in a meet-record time of 1:38.15 and joined Scarlet Martin, Jade Roghair and Olivia Taeger on the 400 freestyle relay squad that bested the previous meet record by more than three seconds with a time of 3:34.17.

“The first think you notice about Aurora is she is so good at practicing,” Butler said. “Your practices are going to make habits and if you are doing it all the time at practice you can just shut your mind off on meet day and let it come out and I doubt there is someone better in the state at practicing than Aurora.”

The performance by Roghair helped West High win six events and cruise to the team title, winning by 151 points.

“We had so many talented incoming freshmen and so many talented upperclassmen this season so that was a lot of fun to see everyone actually show how fast they can go,” Roghair said. “It was fun to be a part of everyone being successful.”

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