Thoma headed to state after district meet

ALTOONA — First came the physical part. Then came the waiting game.

The Newton boys swim team competed in the all-important state qualifying district swim meet at Southeast Polk High School Monday evening, and afterward, several members of the team had to wait a few agonizing hours to see their fate.

When it was over, the Cardinals experienced both elation and heartbreak. The results showed that senior Matt Thoma became the first Newton swimmer since 2008 to qualify for state, while the team’s hopeful 200-yard freestyle relay foursome narrowly missed out.

All in all, it was a highly successful meet for the Cardinals, who had significant time drops and season-best swims across the board to end what has been a season of constant improvement.

“This is the way we hoped our meet would go,” Newton coach Dave Hook said. “We almost had 100 percent individual time drops, and that’s always what you’re looking for. Some guys cut off just a little, and some guys cut off quite a bit. I’m very pleased with the meet.”

The top 24 times in each event statewide advanced to the state meet in Marshalltown on Saturday. There were six district meets, each with seven or eight teams. Many swimmers around Iowa who were on the bubble didn’t know for sure if they qualified until a few hours after the meet when the results were posted on the Iowa High School Athletic Association website.

One of those swimmers anxiously awaiting the results was Newton senior Matt Thoma, the team’s top swimmer this season. He was considered perhaps an afterthought for qualifying individually in the 100 freestyle as his season-best time entering Monday was the 57th-best in Iowa at 51.58 seconds. But Thoma dropped 1.23 seconds on Monday and took seventh at the meet, giving himself a chance.

With the results posted at around 10 p.m., Hook called Thoma with the good news.

“He was jumping up and down when I called him,” Hook said. “We were both celebrating on the phone. I’m absolutely thrilled for him. He’s worked so hard.”

Thoma qualified 23rd out of 24 possible. It’s not a bad accomplishment for someone who missed all of last year while on foreign exchange down in Brazil.

“For him to miss a year of training, it shows what talent he has that he can come back strong and make it to the state meet,” Hook added.

He came close to qualifying in the 50 freestyle as well, as his time of 22.89 seconds was only .14 behind the 24th spot.

On the other side of the coin was Newton’s 200 freestyle relay team of juniors Kyle Lockhart, Luke Norcross and seniors Alec Ubben and Thoma, which figured to have the best chance for Newton to get to state as they entered the meet with the 23rd-best time in the state at 1:34.68.

And when that foursome took fifth at districts Monday night and lowered that time by 1.47 seconds to 1:33.21 — .6 off the school record — there was reasonable optimism that it was good enough to qualify. It wasn’t to be, however, as the cut-off time for state ended up 1:32.71.

Even so, it didn’t put a damper on a positive end to the season for the Cardinals. They had six top 10 individual finishes in the 11 events on Monday and took sixth overall in a meet that included three of the state’s top 14 teams.

“It’s been a long season, and I’m really pruod of how the whole team has done,” Ubben said. “Coach said it was the best it’s done since 2008. He’s really proud of us too, and that’s what matters.”

The first of those top 10 finishes came from junior Ryan Jolivette, who took ninth and dropped more than two seconds in the 200 freestyle. Norcross followed that with a seventh-place finish in the 200 individual medley, dropping a whopping 4.21 seconds. Ubben also had a big swim in the event, taking 12th and dropping 4.05 seconds.

“I was amazed. I’ve never seen our team drop so much time like that,” Thomsa said. “It was awesome to see. It was beyond my expectations.”

Thoma had the Newton’s next two top 10 showings by taking eighth in the 50 free and seventh in the 100 free. The other two came from Norcross taking ninth in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.52 and junior Cody Maxwell taking 10th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.41 — a 3.4 second drop.

Newton had several others with significant time drops. Junior Spencer Hook took 5.03 seconds off his 500 freestyle time and took 13th. Sophomore Paul DeHart dropped 6.1 seconds in his 100 backstroke while taking 20th. Maxwell also dropped 7.41 seconds in his 200 IM time, and junior Sid Trotter shaved 6.08 seconds off his 200 freestyle.