NCMP’s Dydell, Jensen advance to state swim meet

PLEASANT HILL — Jaden Dydell went into Saturday’s district swim meet at Southeast Polk with strong odds to qualify for the state meet.

Dydell performed as expected and will return to the state’s biggest stage next weekend. He’ll also be joined by lifelong friend and teammate Henry Jensen as the Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella senior duo each qualified for individual events.

Dydell will be back in the state meet in both the 100-yard breaststroke and 50 freestyle, while Jensen put together a career-best swim in the 200 freestyle to qualify.

“I felt like I swam really well,” Dydell said. “I am very happy Henry made it, too. He’s my brother and teammate forever. We have been dreaming of this moment ever since we were on the Newton YMCA Penguins. We are both very competitive with each other in practice. I feel like I wouldn’t have swam that fast if Henry wasn’t pushing me in practice every day. I’m glad he is my teammate and he earned this.”

Dydell had the top two individual finishes of the day for NCMP as he was second in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the 100 breaststroke. He swam a season-best time of 21.9 seconds in the 50 freestyle and hit the wall in a season-best 1 minute, 0.45 seconds in the breaststroke.

Those performances earned him co-athlete of the meet with Ankeny’s Trent Frandson, who won the 200 and 500 freestyle races.

“I’m really happy I got swimmer of the meet with Trent Frandson,” Dydell said. “I am honored to be mentioned next to Trent because he is one of the greatest distance swimmers in Iowa high school swimming history. I have a lot of respect for him.”

With just 12 swimmers competing for the Cardinals, NCMP head coach Steve Jones was hoping for a fourth-place finish.

Third-ranked Ankeny is a state title contender and the Hawks won the meet with 487 points. Sixth-ranked West Des Moines Valley was next with 452. Indianola, which came into the meet ranked 16th, finished third with 291.

No. 30 NCMP did finish fourth as the Cardinals scored 172 points. No. 33 Des Moines Lincoln (144) was fifth.

Rounding out the nine-team field were No. 28 Southeast Polk (129), No. 36 Centerville (117), No. 44 Des Moines North-Hoover (84) and No. 42 Oskaloosa (68).

Newton’s fourth-place finish included 24 season-best times.

“We were really good today,” Jones said.

There were six district swim meets throughout the state of Iowa on Saturday. The top 32 individual times and the top 24 relay times in the district meets in each event qualified for the state meet.

Dydell’s times were good enough for 14th in the 50 freestyle and ninth in the 100 breaststroke.

“There are some things I can fix before state that can help me drop some time,” Dydell said. “I’m happy with today, but my main focus now is state.”

Jensen finished sixth in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1:50.21. That performance was good enough for 28th in the state.

Jensen also was eighth in the 500 freestyle with a season-best time of 5:01.69. That missed state qualifying by less than a second.

The Cardinals were fourth at the district meet in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

The 400 freestyle relay team of Eli Eekhoff, Clay Lamb, Jensen and Dydell finished with a season-best time of 3:27.78. The Cardinals dropped 5 seconds off their time but missed qualifying for state by 1.29 seconds.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Eekhoff, Jordan Henderson, Dydell and Jensen placed fourth with a season-best time of 1:34.20.

“Overall, everyone seemed happy with how they performed,” Dydell said. “We were all excited to swim fast and it carried over into our events.”

The 200 medley relay team of Jackson Mace-Maynard, Brady Comer, Lamb and Henderson finished sixth in a season-best time of 1:55.81.

Eekhoff finished 13th in the 50 freestyle with a season-best time of 23.73 seconds and 14th in the 100 freestyle in a season-best 53.42.

Devin Lamb was 13th in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 2:04.12 and Comer took 13th in the 100 breaststroke in a season-best 1:09.64.

Landon Heisdorffer finished 14th in the 200 IM with a season-best time of 2:32.07.

Clay Lamb (season-best 1:01.31) and Mace-Maynard (season-best 1:01.50) were 14-15 in the 100 butterfly and Devin Lamb (season-best 5:45.73) and Heisdorffer (season-best 5:58) were 14-15 in the 500 freestyle.