March 28, 2024

NCMP finishes second at home invitational

The depth of the Indianola boys swim team is impressive. The Indians’ program brought a lot of swimmers to the Newton Cardinal Invitational on Saturday, but NCMP didn’t back down.

Indianola’s swimmers were loud, and they even carried a flag around with them.

But while NCMP was short on numbers, it wasn’t short on performances at the Newton YMCA.

With only 16 swimmers, NCMP still finished second as a team in its home meet. Indianola won the meet with 325 points, NCMP was 27 points back in second and Decorah finished third in the six-team field with 206 points.

“In a couple of events, (Indianola) just had more depth than we did. We never stopped fighting,” NCMP coach Sarah Patterson said. “They didn’t back down. Indianola had a million people here and even a flag. Those guys didn’t get intimidated. They were like ‘let’s go.’ That’s what I like to see. I am competitive and I like my team to be that way, too.”

Highlighting NCMP’s day were Clay Trotter and Caleb Gaylor.

Gaylor broke a nine-year-old record in the 400-meter freestyle. Gaylor hit the wall in first place, and his time of 4 minutes, 26.65 seconds bested the former record by nearly 3 seconds. Former record holder Lucas Greta finished the race in 4:29.30 in 2007.

“The cool thing about that is that he swam in the event for the first time ever Tuesday night,” Patterson said. “He came a second away that night and told me to put him in it Saturday, and I will get that record. And he blew it away. He just wanted it. He is a motivated individual.”

That wasn’t the only win for Gaylor. He also was part of the winning medley team and anchored the 200 freestyle relay foursome to a first-place finish.

In the 400 freestyle relay, Gaylor nearly rallied for the win. He jumped into the pool with a half-length deficit and was out-touched by .59 seconds.

“He’s done that a few times. If we had five more meters, he would have caught him,” Patterson said.

NCMP started the afternoon with a win in the medley relay. The team finished second on the scoreboard, but Indianola was disqualified. The winning NCMP team included Jacob Nedder, Carter Briggs, Gaylor and Trotter. They finished the race in 2:01.09.

Gaylor and Trotter teamed up to win the 200 freestyle relay, too. Their teammates in that one were Logan Heisdorffer and Paul Maharry, and they won the race with a time of 1:48.73.

“I don’t care if we win or lose,” Trotter said. “It matters that we have a lot of team spirit. This team is working together and we know that we can compete. We had fun today.”

Trotter grabbed another win in the 50 freestyle and was the leadoff swimmer in the 400 freestyle relay that took second.

“The 50 freestyle win felt good,” Trotter said. “I told the Indianola swimmer who got second after he beat me in the dual earlier this year that I was going to swim the 50 here and beat him. His response was ‘good luck with that.’

“I was excited. So much joy after that one. That one felt good.”

In other individual events, Adam Hunter placed second in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:19.12, Heisdorffer was second in the 100 freestyle in 1:02.73 and Briggs and Paul Maharry were third and fourth, respectively, in the 100 breaststroke. Briggs also placed fourth in the 200 Individual Medley.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the guys,” Patterson said. “Some of these kids have never swam in an invitational before. That’s a big deal. To see six teams in the pool and it being so loud, they did well.

“Usually, if you win in a meet, you start to understand why we work so hard. You have to understand the competitive thing or else practice can be a drag. Practice is hard.”

Indianola was too much to overcome mostly because of its depth. While NCMP was collecting runner-up finishes, the Indians went 1-3 in the 100 and 200 freestyle, the 100 backstroke and 2-3 in the 200 IM.

Indianola had the team title wrapped up before the final race, but that didn’t stop NCMP from trying to win the race.

Gaylor jumped into the pool in second place. He had a half a pool length to make up the difference, and nearly did just that.

“Our relays are jelling. The guys are buying in. They know I am not just blowing smoke,” Patterson said.

The rest of the six-team field included Grinnell in fourth place, while Oskaloosa was fifth and Vinton-Shellsburg came in sixth.