NCMP’s Gaylor wins two NCIC event titles

Some of the closely contested races of the 2017 North Central Iowa Swim Conference meet Saturday involved members of the NCMP Cardinal boys’ swim team. The Cardinals hosted the conference meet at the Newton YMCA.

Junior Caleb Gaylor had two wide-margin victories in individual races for NCMP. He won the NCIC championships in the 200-meter freestyle race and in the 400-meter freestyle. Gaylor holds the team records in both events and posted winning times close to those marks.

Gaylor won the 200 in 2 minutes, 3.02 seconds, which was seven seconds faster than the second-place finisher in the conference race. Later he swam away from the 400 field, winning in 4:28.32, which was more than 15 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

He also anchored NCMP’s two second-place finishing relays. NCMP came within a finger nail of beating Boone in the 200 freestyle.

Senior Clay Trotter, sophomore Mason Lee, senior Paul Maharry and Gaylor posted a season’s best time of 1:45.39 while Boone’s foursome touched in 1:45.19. Indianola, which had the fastest time coming into the meet, was third in 1:47.67.

Also making the podium in the 200 freestyle relay event was the NCMP team of sophomore Carter Briggs, freshman Izaak Miller, sophomore Adam Hunter and senior Logan Heisdorffer. It took sixth in 1:55.84.

“It was a very exciting meet,” Heisdorffer said. “This meet meant a lot to me as it was the last meet with everyone on the team. There are some who won’t be going to districts with us, and it was my last meet here at home. We did well as a team today.”

Indianola won the team title with 492.5 points followed by Boone with 476 points. NCMP finished third with 390 points. Decorah took fourth with 257 points followed by Grinnell with 192, Vinton-Shellsburg with 167, Oskaloosa with 129.5 and Williamsburg with 41.

Gaylor and Decorah’s Noah Faldet, who also won two individual titles — the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke — and swam on two relays, were voted by coaches as co-swimmers of the meet. The coaching staffs of Boone and Vinton-Shellsburg were awarded coaching staffs of the year honors.

“It’s great to win the conference races, but it’s because of my coaches here and in Pella. Without them, I couldn’t have done anything like this,” Gaylor said. “As a team, we did better than expected, so I think we did extremely well today.”

NCMP’s Maharry was named a NCIC academic team award winner.

“Wow, we swam really well led by six awesome seniors” NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson said. “A lot of things I’ve been saying I wanted to see from these guys, we saw today. They went to the next level in their home pool and were really competitive.”

Boone pushed out ahead of the field in the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay. The race was for second between NCMP and Indianola. Trotter, Heisdorffer and Hunter had the Cardinals in a good position for Gaylor to take over.

Gaylor turned in a 56-second 100 meters and went ahead of Indianola’s anchor swimmer, Jaxson Mahlstat, as he made the turn for the final 50 meters. Boone won in 3:53.05 with NCMP taking second in 3:58.71 followed by Indianola in 4:00.54.

“The 400 relay was fun. It was exciting to be in and fun to watch the end,” Heisdorffer said. “I’m glad we have Caleb on the team.”

Gaylor said the NCMP foursome was seeded fourth and was shooting to finish third in the 400 relay.

“When I saw my teammates go out and give it their all and putting us into second, I went out determined to keep us there,” Gaylor said. “When I hit the wall and couldn’t see him (the Indianola swimmer) any more halfway through the last length, I knew we had second.”

Patterson said the two freestyle relays were exciting races to watch. The NCMP swimmers in those relays had their fastest times of the season, she said.

“That is the way it should be as the season winds down to district time. We’ve been closing the gap on all the other teams,” Patterson said.

Trotter finished second in the tight three-way race in the 50 freestyle. Boone’s Devan Baldus won in 25.94 seconds followed by Trotter in 26.62 and Indianola’s Alex Charron in 26.65. Lee finished fifth in 27.58 seconds.

The top three finishers in each individual race were awarded medals and fourth, fifth and sixth placers received certificates. The top six in each event reached the conference podium. In relays, the top two teams received medals and the next four teams were awarded certificates.

Heisdorffer earned the third-place medal in the 100 freestyle in 1:00.87. Maharry turned in a sixth-place finish in 1:07.66. Hunter was fifth in the 400 freestyle race in 4:50.09 and just missed the podium in the 200 freestyle, taking seventh in 2:15.61.

Briggs won the third-place medal in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.01, just ahead of teammate Maharry, who was fourth in 1:22.28. Briggs finished fifth in the 200 individual medley in 2:37.56 and Jacob Nedder was fifth in the 100 backstroke.

The first NCMP podium appearance of the day was by the Cardinal 200 medley relay team of Nedder, Briggs, Lee and Trotter. The foursome was fourth in 2:04.75.

Sophomore Deklan Lewis placed seventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:14.19 and freshman Clay Meyer was 12th in 1:17.34. Heisdoffer was 10th in the 200 freestyle in 2:19.35. Nedder was 10th in the 200 individual medley in 2:46.46, and Miller was 15th in 3:04.19. Miller took 14th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:33.38.

In the 100 butterfly, Lee was 11th in 1:17.78, Meyer was 12th in 1:21.10 and sophomore Mitch Faidley in 14th at 1:24.83. Senior Logan Zaabel finished 21st in the 100 freestyle in 1:18.44 and senior Nick Ver Steeg placed 22nd in the 50 freestyle in 34.05 seconds.

The 200 medley relay team of Lewis, Maharry, Faidley and Meyer placed 11th in 2:15.46. Meyer, Lewis, Zaabel and Nedder combined for 12th in the 400 relay race in 4:46.69.

“I’m proud of all of our swimmers, including the guys who did not place in scoring positions for us today,” Patterson said. “They were all cheering for each other. We’ve made it a family-type atmosphere all season. The coaches cultivate it but the boys have followed through and made it happen.”

Patterson said she and assistant coach Quin Knepper will up the yardage for the boys to swim during practices early in the week heading into the district meet on Saturday. She said the guys just have to buy into another week of hard work to give themselves an opportunity to qualify for the state meet.

NCMP’s swimmers turned focus to preparing for Saturday’s district swim meet at Johnston. Swimming begins at noon. In the district with NCMP and Johnston are Ames, Atlantic, Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln/Thomas Jefferson, Des Moines Roosevelt, Lewis Central and Marshalltown.

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