Martin leads NCMP swimmers at state meet

IOWA CITY — Newton freshman Finn Martin comes from a family of swimmers. Two of his siblings won state titles. And there is no doubt the latest Martin has talent.

But Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella head boys swim coach Sarah Patterson is more impressed with Martin’s work ethic.

“As a coach, I’m always more impressed by hard work and attitude first,” Patterson said. “He’s talented. That absolutely true. But he works so incredibly hard and deserves everything he gets.

“He does anything I ask him to do. He’s so willing to put his body on the line. I’m so proud of him. His performance was fun to watch. I knew he would do well.”

Martin advanced to Saturday in both of his individual events and earned his first state medal in the 100-yard freestyle at the University of Iowa Aquatic Center inside the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.

The NCMP freshman led the Cardinals with a sixth-place finish in the 100 freestyle and he also was 11th in the 50 freestyle.

“I’m happy with the 100. I stayed in sixth, but I dropped time and those other guys are super fast,” Martin said. “I was a little disappointed with the 50. I think I could have gone faster. I think I stayed underwater too long. It is what it is.”

Martin and senior Brady Comer competed in individual events on Friday. Martin swam again on Saturday and then anchored the 400 freestyle relay in the final event of the weekend.

NCMP’s relay finished 20th out of 24 teams but turned in a 3.23 second season-best time.

The foursome of seniors Eli Eekhoff and Clay Lamb, sophomore MacK Copeland and Martin finished the race in 3 minutes, 21.99 seconds. Their previous best time was 3:25.22.

NCMP trailed Marshalltown by just .6 seconds and Decorah was 18th in 3:21.26.

“Three of those four guys sat around and watched all day Friday and Saturday,” Patterson said. “It’s tough to wait around. I was so proud of them for being able to do that and for just representing the team. They took that seriously.”

The highlight of the race was Martin’s anchor leg. He jumped in the pool in seventh but rallied the team to fourth in the heat.

“I like to chase. It gives me a reason to try to win,” said Martin, who said he enjoyed Saturday better than Friday because he got to share the experience with his teammates. “I didn’t catch all of them, but it was pretty fun.”

The only NCMP swimmer who had any state experience coming in at all was Eekhoff. He was on a relay that swam at state during his freshman year.

“We had more guys here this time,” Eekhoff said. “That was the difference. I think I could have done better, but I’m glad my guys did their best and gave their all.”

Lamb agreed with Eekhoff in the sense that he thought he didn’t swim his best either.

“Overall, our race went really well,” Lamb said. “I swam what I swam last week so in terms of my swimming it wasn’t the best. I can’t complain. To be able to swim here is always a huge accomplishment.”

Copeland and Martin are the two returners from NCMP’s state contingent. Copeland had a personal-best time on his split and hopes this was just the beginning of his state experience.

“I think we did amazing collectively. I swam a 2-second split PR so I’m happy with that,” Copeland said. “I think we did the best we could this year. We’ll come back and do better next year.”

Martin stayed busy with his two individual events and four individual swims. But the other three Cardinals had to battle the waiting game. And their experiences were similar.

Lamb said waiting around and watching was intimidating. Copeland didn’t think waiting was a fun experience. Eekhoff admitted it was difficult but had a really fun time in his return to the state pool.

“The high school meets are nothing compared to this one,” Lamb said. “It was a learning experience. Coach Patterson told us we all earned our spots here so that’s just what I kept telling myself.”

Martin turned in a personal-best 46.92 seconds in the preliminary round of the 100 freestyle. He qualified for the ‘A’ final in sixth and finished with a personal-best 46.62.

He set a new school record with his time on Friday and then bettered it on Saturday in the finals.

“I wanted to go 46 and I got 46. That was the goal,” Martin said. “I didn’t know I got the school record until Patterson just told me. That’s pretty cool.”

Martin swam a personal-best 21.55 in the 50 freestyle prelims on Friday. That qualified him 11th and put him in Saturday’s ‘B’ final. He went 21.63 the second time around and stayed in 11th.

The 21.63 was the same time swam by the eighth-place finisher in the ‘A’ final. The ninth and 10th place finishers in the ‘B’ final were clocked in 21.55.

“I think he handled the pressure well,” Patterson said about Martin. “I think he was happy with his performances. But he will always think he can do better.”

Comer was under the weather all week and practiced only twice the week leading up to state. Both of those practices were on Monday.

“It was a good experience. I just wish I wasn’t sick,” Comer said.

Comer’s first and only state experience came in the 100 breaststroke. He finished 27th out of 32 swimmers with a time of 1:02.15. That was his second-best time ever.

“He still swam so well,” Patterson said. “When we picked him up Friday, he looked like death warmed over. For him to come and swim with just one practice this week and to give everything he had was awesome.

“I think he could have broken a minute if he wasn’t sick.”

NCMP finished 17th in the team standings with 19 points. The Cardinals were better than rival Decorah, which ended up 24th with seven points.

Top-ranked Waukee won the team championship with 304 points. The Warriors registered three wins and nine top-three finishes.

Second-ranked West Des Moines Valley finished second with 214 points and the rest of the top five included No. 11 Ames (176), No. 5 Ankeny (160) and third-ranked Pleasant Valley (159). Seventh-ranked Linn-Mar (158.5) was closely behind in sixth.

“It’s been a really fun experience,” Copeland said. “Waiting to swim until the very last relay was not a fun experience, but that just means we will have to swim faster next year to make sure we are in more events.”

Notes: Patterson hinted at a possible return to the boys’ program next season. She’s retiring from teaching after 30-plus years in the district but is still undecided on her coaching future. “I love coaching with (assistant coach) Lucas (Warner),” Patterson said. “I’m not 100 percent sure I’m coming back, but I really want to. I think we can build on what we did this year.” … Former NCMP head boys swim coach Steve Jones is now an assistant coach for Ankeny.