Dydell, Briggs end season strong in state breaststroke race

IOWA CITY — Carter Briggs swam his last competitive race on Saturday, competing in his second straight Iowa boys’ state swim meet. Jaden Dydell was in the state meet pool for the first time at Saturday’s 2019 Iowa High School Boys’ State Swim Meet in Iowa City.

The NCMP Cardinal teammates finished out the 2018-19 season in one last swim in the 100-yard breaststroke, which is the next to last event. After waiting most of the day, Briggs and Dydell churned the waters at the University of Iowa Campus Recreation & Wellness Center swimming pool.

“They did really well and both were happy with how they did,” NCMP head coach Sarah Patterson said. “Carter hit another 1:02 and did better than he did last year and Jaden was able to drop a little bit more time. He was almost under 1:02.”

Dydell wanted to drop more time and finish in the top 15 as he competed in his first state swim meet. Done and done.

The sophomore posted a personal-best time of 1 minute, 2.01 seconds in touching second in his heat race. The heat was won by Bettendorf’s Ben Ketelaar, who shaved two seconds of his state qualifying time, for a 1:00.06.

Dydell, who qualified for the state meet with a 1:02.56, ended up 13th in the 24-swimmer field of the breaststroke. He went in seeded 18th.

Briggs concluded his high school swimming career with a 15th-place finish in the breaststroke race at state. Briggs posted a 1:02.19. The senior had placed 24th in the state meet as a junior.

Iowa City High junior Forrest Frazier won the state 100 breaststroke championship with a time of 55.17 seconds.

“We couldn’t have asked for better athletes to go and represent us. They worked hard all week on perfecting every little thing. Then, they had to wait almost the entire meet to swim their event,” Patterson said. “They handled that well.”

Briggs and Dydell scored six team points for NCMP at the state meet. NCMP tied for 29th with Fort Dodge and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

“Overall, a very fun day with a great pair of swimmers. Our T-shirts said DUAL THREAT, so that was fun,” Patterson said. “We will miss the Carter-Jaden dynamic duo next year, but Carter has left a breaststroke legacy for Jaden to carry on.”

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