Cardinal swimmers capture five NCSC event championships

GRINNELL — Repeating as champions in the North Central Swim Conference were Newton Cardinals’ 200-yard medley relay team, the 200 freestyle relay team and senior Isaac Webb in the 100 butterfly race. The Cardinals competed in the second annual NCSC meet Saturday at Grinnell College.

The Cardinals won five event championships and took third as a team.

Just as they did a year ago, the Cardinals opened Saturday’s meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay race in 1 minute, 43.75 seconds. Webb, senior Aaron King and sophomore Lucas Warner are back-to-back relay champions with junior Jacob Knoll combining with them this season.

Later in the meet, the same foursome claimed the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.84. King, Warner and Webb were on the 2015 conference championship relay.

Webb set two conference records in winning individual events. He became the two-time NCSC 100 butterfly champion, breaking his own conference time (53.84 seconds) to win in 52.61 seconds. King was second in the butterfly in 57.04 seconds.

Last year, Webb was second in the 100 breaststroke. This season he dominated the race to win in 59.23 seconds as the second-place swimmer touched in 1:03.10. It was another conference record for Webb. The former record time was 1:00.52 set by Decorah’s Mac Faldet in 2015.

Warner, who was third last year, captured the championship in the 100 backstroke. He pulled away from the field to win in 58.48 seconds. The second-place swimmer finished in 1:02.41. Newton teammate Knoll was fourth in 1:03.76.

“We had an excellent conference meet. We’re excited about the five conference champions and finishing third as a team, but we saw drops in times from everyone. We had a lot of personal-best times,” Newton head coach Dave Hook said.

Webb was named the top swimmer of the meet. Seniors Zach Theis, King and Webb were named to the NCSC all-academic team.

Boone captured the team championship with 460.5 points with last year’s champion, Decorah, in second with 322.5 points. Newton was third with 313.5 points followed by Grinnell with 230.5, Oskaloosa 197, Vinton 114 and Williamsburg 46.

King tied for second in the 50 freestyle with Decorah’s Trevor Malvern in 23.37 seconds. Warner placed second in the 100 freestyle in 50.28 seconds. Knoll was ninth in the 50 free in 24.85 seconds.

“Jacob has been steady for us all season, and that is why he is on our relays. His 50 freestyle was a personal best, and he dropped two seconds on his backstroke race,” Hook said.

The 200 medley relay team of Deklan Lewis, Paul Maharry, Mason Lee and Logan Heisdorffer finished sixth in 1:55.74. Lee, Lewis and Heisdorffer combined with Adam Hunter for seventh place in the 200 free relay in 1:45.57.

Maharry shaved two seconds off his time in the 100 breaststroke to place sixth in 1:11.77. He dropped five seconds off his time in the 200 individual medley for eighth place in 2:25.15. Lewis was 10th in the individual medley race in 2:30.84.

Hunter took fifth in the 500 freestyle in 5:39.93 and Heisdorffer was ninth in 6:00.38. Both were personal-best times for the swimmers. Hunter placed seventh in the 200 freestyle in 2:08.14 and senior Chet Adams was 13th in 2:31.77.

Hook said Newton’s 400 freestyle relay team of Heisdorffer, Hunter, Lee and Maharry was very competitive. It took sixth in 3:57.51.

In the 100 freestyle, Lewis was 12th in 1:01.17 and Adams was 15th in 1:06.15. Lee placed 12th in the butterfly in 1:09.20. Grant Hamand finished 17th in the breaststroke in 1:36.79 and 19th in the 50 free in 31.82 seconds.

The Cardinals prepare this week for Saturday’s district swim meet at Johnston. In the district meet with Newton are Johnston, Ankeny, Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln/Thomas Jefferson, Des Moines East, Des Moines Hoover/North, Mason City and Waukee. The Iowa state swim meet is Feb. 13 at Marshalltown.

Swimming at the district meet begins at 12:30 p.m.

“We’re right on target as we head into district week. We’ve had hard practices going into the conference meet and we saw drop in times, which is a good sign,” Hook said. “We’ll do our tapering this week to get ready for district.”

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com