March 29, 2024

NCMP boys finish second at LHC swim meet

INDIANOLA — Winning nine of the 11 events, host Indianola captured the 2019 Little Hawkeye Conference boys’ swimming team championship on Thursday. The NCMP Cardinal boys were attempting to defend their LHC title in the second annual conference meet.

NCMP scored 337 points for second place with Indianola taking the crown with 421 points. Grinnell was third with 243 and Oskaloosa was fourth with 224 points.

Senior Carter Briggs successfully defended his Little Hawkeye Conference 100-yard breaststroke title. Briggs narrowly beat NCMP teammate sophomore Jaden Dydell — 1:03.42 to 1:03.61. The Cardinals placed three on the breaststroke podium as senior Grant Freese took fifth in 1:13.51.

“It was a great race and only tenths separated them,” NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson said. “We had a ton of great swims Thursday night. Our medley relay posted their fastest time of the season which is great as we head down the championship stretch.”

The only other race Indianola did not win was the 200 freestyle relay. In a three-way battle in the Indianola YMCA pool, Oskaloosa, NCMP and Indianola were factions of a second apart. Oskaloosa won in 1:36.40.

NCMP’s foursome of Briggs, Dydell and seniors Adam Hunter and Mason Lee were second in 1:36.47. Indianola’s relay team placed third in 1:36.51. NCMP’s other teams seniors Elijah Sander, Freese and Mitch Faidley and sophomore Henry Jensen was ninth in 1:52.47.

“It was an exciting race,” Patterson said of the 200 freestyle relay. “I can’t wait to put it all together at districts when we are tapered.”

Hunter claimed second place in the 200 freestyle in a season’s best time of 1:56.13, just behind Indianola’s Collin Geurts at 1:52.06. Jensen finished seventh in 2:04.26 and sophomore Landon Heisdorffer was ninth in 2:14.4.

Later in the 500 freestyle race, Hunter touched second in 5:23.40. Jensen finished fifth in 5:32.57 and sophomore Devin Lamb was ninth in 6:11.53.

NCMP’s team of junior Jacob Nedder, Briggs, Lee and Dydell opened the meet with a second-place swim in the 200 medley relay in 1:46.11. Senior Deklan Lewis combined the Freese and juniors Izaak Miller and Clay Meyer to take sixth in 1:57.60.

Briggs ended up second in the 200 individual medley race in 2:12.12. Lee and Miller with 3-4 in the 50 freestyle in 23.97 seconds and 24.43 seconds, respectively. Meyer placed eighth in 25.66.

Nedder turned in a third-place time of 1:02.42 in the 100 backstroke with Lewis right behind him in fourth t 1:02.93. Meyer took eighth in 1:06.39.

Miller was fourth in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.63 while Faidley finished seventh in 1:09 and senior James Westbrook was eighth in 1:14.19. Faidley and Westbrook’s times were personal-bests for them.

In the 100 freestyle, Dydell touched fourth in 53.77 second and Nedder was fifth in 54.55. Heisdorffer placed 11th in 1:00.71. Nedder, Lee, Miller and Hunter combined for fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay race in 3:42.89.

“I was a little disappointed in our final event — the 400 freestyle relay. We let off the gas a little bit and allowed ourselves to swim low in the water and have a bit of feel-sorry-itis. Yes, we are fatigued at this point in the meet, but we have to dig deeper,” Patterson said.

NCMP’s team of Jensen, Lewis, Heisdorffer and Meyer beat out another NCMP team of Westbrook, Sander and juniors Zachary Ort and Parker Sherwood for the final scoring spot, eighth in 4:07.04 to 4:23.20.

Patterson said most of the NCMP swimmers dropped times in their events, which is what they should be doing.

“We have one final meet as a whole team before districts,” Patterson said. “We will travel to Decorah next weekend to compete at the North Central Championships. I would love for our guys to elevate their game and take this title home.”

The Cardinals have a week of practice before competing in the North Central Iowa Swim Conference meet on Jan. 26. The NCIC meet starts at 10:30 a.m. in Decorah.

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