Dealing with a slightly different format of meet in Waterloo on Saturday, the Newton boys swim team didn’t seem to have any problems adjusting.
The Cardinals earned five first-place finishes and multiple other top-threes in the relay-style Wahawk Invitational, hosted by Waterloo West High School.
“We did well. We swam some good times and I was pleased with how they competed,” Newton coach Dave Hook said. “There was definitely some different competition there as well.”
Among the first-place finishes were four relays and one individual event. The relays included the 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Austin Bunker and senior Ryan Jolivette (1 minute, 48.02 seconds), the 100 butterfly relay team of sophomore Brandon Miller and senior Josh Smith (55.37), the 500 free relay team of Jolivette, Bunker and Smith (5:05.37) and the 400 free relay team of Jolivette, Miller, Smith and Bunker (3:42.70).
The Cardinals’ one individual victory came from senior Matheus Pinto, who earned a time of 49.15 to take the 100 free. Senior Luke Norcross narrowly missed first place in the 50 free, swimming a 23.73 and finished just .04 seconds behind Waterloo East’s Tyler Kamp for first.
Some of the other top-threes on the night included the 200 medley relay team of Norcross, Pinto, Miller and Smith, which took second with a time of 1:47.07. Fitzgerald and senior Cody Maxwell would echo that success in the same event later in the meet, taking second with a time of 2:17.35.
Newton actually went 1-2 in the 500 free relay, as the team of seniors Spencer Hook and Daniel Maurer and junior Paul DeHart placed second with a time of 5:40.54. In the next event, the 200 free relay, Newton picked up another second-place finish as the team of Norcross, Bunker, Jolivette and Pinto completed the event with a time of 1:34.39.
Among the Cards’ third-place finishers were the Hook and Maurer in the 100 backstroke relay with a time of 1:03.84 and the 400 free relay team of Maurer, DeHart, Maxwell and Fitzgerald with a time of 4:06.05.
The Cardinals will now have the week off to prepare for their second trip to Fort Dodge in a month. This time around, however, Newton will face a much larger field for a tournament instead of a dual, and will also likely face some new competitors much like it did over the weekend.
“It’ll give us a feel of where we are,” Hook said. “And there will definitely be some more different competition, that’s for for sure.”