March 19, 2024

Webb sets two more school records in Cardinal swimmers’ loss to Indians

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Isaak Webb sets individual goals every time he jumps into a pool. Those goals don’t always add up to setting a new school record, but on Tuesday that wasn’t the case.

“I knew he was going to do exactly that. He asked for those two events. I thought he had a good chance to break those,” Newton coach Dave Hook said.

Webb asked Hook if he could swim in the 200-meter freestyle and the 100 breaststroke because he had his sights set on grabbing two more records.

Both of those records would eventually fall. Webb won three races in all and would have won a fourth if not for a disqualification in the 200 medley relay.

That was the only bump in an otherwise smooth road for Webb. His time of 2 minutes, 1.94 seconds in the 200 freestyle broke a 33-year-old record that was set by Jeff Schnoebelen back in 1982.

The 100 breaststroke record lasted just one season as Webb dethroned Jacob Lensing’s mark set last year. Webb’s record will sit at 1:07.28 for now.

“Each race I have individual goals and sometimes that means breaking a team record and sometimes it’s not,” Webb said. “Tonight, I definitely wanted to prove all the hard work I have put in the past few months has paid off. I was able to do that.”

With only 12 swimmers competing, Newton’s team had a tough time staying with Indianola. The Cardinals led 47-35 after the first four events, but the Indians’ depth was too much as they cruised to a 105-64 win.

“I knew they were going to be a tough team. They have some tough swimmers and that showed tonight, but I was happy with how our guys performed,” Hook said. “Some of them are already at where they left off at last year so that’s a good sign.”

The Cardinals’ top relay team in the 200 medley relay would have started things off nicely, but the squad was disqualified for a false start.

Newton bounced back though with a 1-2 finish in 200 freestyle and 50 freestyle races a little bit later.

“I thought the boys were very competitive. We had some good times,” Hook said. “We have been practicing hard for two weeks now. They just did a really nice job.”

Webb’s first-place finish in the 200 freestyle was backed up by a runner-up finish from freshman Adam Hunter. Hunter, who also had a second-place finish in the 100 freestyle, finished his 200 in 2:25.48.

“He was very impressive. He did a great job,” Hook said of Hunter. “All the freshmen did a nice job.”

Jacob Knoll and Logan Heisdorffer then went 1-2 in the 50 freestyle, hitting the wall in 27.98 seconds and 29.01 seconds, respectively.

The other two wins for the Cardinals came from Webb in the 100 breaststroke and from the 200 freestyle relay foursome of Knoll, Zach Theis, Hunter and Webb.

Hunter and Deklan Lewis also were 2-3 in the 100 freestyle. Hunter hit the wall in 1:06.62, which was a little more than three seconds behind Indianola’s Alex Charron. Lewis’ time was 1:17.83.

Hunter also teamed up with Theis, Heisdorffer and Ben Petersen to take third in the 400 freestyle relay.

It was Webb’s night. He continues to set the bar extremely high for anyone else who swims for the Newton Cardinals.

“I was just really excited to be able to break another team record,” Webb said. “The best part was how the rest of the team supported me. They all came and gave me high fives and hugs.

“We are a team. It doesn’t matter where we are from. We are all part of Cardinal swimming.”

The Cardinals were missing two other swimmers from Pella. Lucas Warner just recently helped the Dutch football team claim their second straight Class 3A state title and is expected to join the team on Monday. Aaron King also will swim this year but is currently on vacation.

Hook was still able to get a good look at some of his younger swimmers and find out where each one will be valuable at this season.

“We have a lot of kids with a lot of potential,” Hook said. “I am looking at seeing where our guys shine the most so we can put them in the right events.”

The Cardinals travel to Des Moines Lincoln to swim against the Railsplitters and Oskaloosa on Tuesday.