NCMP edges Oskaloosa at Cardinal Invitational

The Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella boys swim team has only 10 swimmers on the roster.

One of those swimmers was not available and a few others had been ill all week. So the Cardinals were even more short-handed than normal but still found a way to edge Oskaloosa during the team’s home invitational.

NCMP scored 109.5 points to finish fifth in the Cardinal Invitational on Saturday. Oskaloosa was sixth with 103.

Indianola won the team championship easily with 359.5 points. Decorah was the runner-up with 276, Vinton-Shellsburg was third with 223 and Grinnell/BGM took fourth with 182.

Brady Comer was not available on Saturday because of another extra-curricular obligation. Tyler Sterling, the team’s lone senior, also was limited to only relays because he was returning from an illness.

The Cardinals’ top finisher was Eli Eekhoff in the 50-meter freestyle. He placed fourth after being clocked in 27.3 seconds.

Clay Lamb was fifth in two individual races and helped NCMP place fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Lamb was fifth in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly, finishing in 2 minutes, 26.74 seconds and 1:10.41, respectively.

The 400 freestyle relay included Eekhoff, Lamb, Mack Copeland and Jonah Brown and they finished fifth in 4:24.78.

Eekhoff was sixth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 1:00.99. Copeland placed seventh in the 400 freestyle in 5:52.69.

Notes: The Cardinal Invitational was canceled last year due to weather. … NCMP returns to its home pool for a meet against Boone and Des Moines East at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Newton YMCA.