Indianola’s depth too much for NCMP

Finn Martin set two school records and Ethan Comer won a pair of events, but Indianola’s depth was too much to overcome as the Indians downed the Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella boys’ swim team on Tuesday at the Newton YMCA.

The Cardinals registered five wins in their home opener, but Indianola scored the 94-68 win.

Martin was part of three wins in all as he anchored the 400-meter freestyle relay team to a victory and won the 50 and 100 freestyles while setting new school records in the process.

NCMP ended the night with a win in the 400 freestyle relay. The foursome of MacK Copeland, Mason Gaulke, Drew Fuller and Martin won the race in 4 minutes, 9.76 seconds.

Martin’s winning time in the 50 was clocked in a career-best 23.97 seconds. That was better than the previous school record of 24.34 Caleb Heiar posted back in 2018.

In the 100 freestyle, Martin bettered a school record that stood for 36 years. His time of 53.23 won the race and bested the 53.72 previous school record set by Chris Shaffer back in 1987.

The other two wins came from Comer. He won the 200 individual medley in 2:37.14 and posted a winning time of 1:17.24 in the 100 breaststroke.

The Cardinals were second in both the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.

Fuller, Comer, Gaulke and Caleb Punt posted a runner-up time of 2:06.57 in the 200 medley relay. Indianola won the race in 2:04.62.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Martin, Comer, Punt and Copeland was second in 1:50.06. Indianola won that race in 1:48.76.

NCMP finished 2-3 in both the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke.

Copeland (2:19.44) was second in the 200 freestyle and Punt (2:30.45) finished third. Fuller (1:11.81) placed second in the 100 backstroke and Punt (1:21.4) took third.

Copeland was the runner-up in the 400 freestyle with a time of 5:11.6. Indianola’s Ryan Torrence edged Copeland in 5:11.1.

The other top-three finisher was Gaulke, who placed third in the 100 butterfly. His time of 1:17.79 was .61 seconds off second place.

The Cardinals won five races and finished 2-3-4 in the 100 backstroke, but Indianola went 1-2-4 in the 100 fly, placed 2-3-4 in the 200 IM and finished 1-3 in three events and 2-3 in two others.

Notes: Indianola also won the junior varsity matchup 57-31. Cody Klein, who is out for swimming for the first time this winter, won the JV 100 freestyle and the JV 400 freestyle team of Blaine Brooks, Logan Russell, Sean Bower and Derek Wermager also swam to victory.