NCMP boys finish second at Cardinal Invitational

When it comes to Finn Martin, nothing has surprised Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella head boys’ swim coach Lucas Warner yet.

“I expected him to do huge things this year and he’s only going to get faster,” Warner said about Martin. “He hasn’t surprised me yet. His practice tempos are close to records and he’s not even starting from the blocks.”

Speaking of records, Martin set another one on Saturday. After posting two school records in the team’s home meet on Tuesday, Martin set another one during the Cardinal Invitational at the Newton YMCA.

That helped lead the squad to a runner-up finish in a meet that featured a handful of conference rivals.

“That was a huge team win for us. We came out of nowhere,” Warner said. “Everyone stepped up and did exactly what I expected them to do. We had a really tough week of practice. We swam a lot of meters this week. It was important for us to come out and get second place.”

The Cardinals once again couldn’t keep up with a deeper Indianola squad, but NCMP scored 240 points in second. The Indians won the meet with 318 points, and the rest of the five-team field featured Vinton-Shellsburg (210), Grinnell (199) and Oskaloosa (136).

Martin won two individual events on the day, Ethan Comer also won the 200-meter individual medley and the Cardinals finished their day with a win in the 400 freestyle relay.

Martin’s time of 2 minutes, 1.82 seconds won the 200 freestyle and set a new school record. That was just fast enough to dethrone Caleb Heiar’s time from 2015.

Martin also won the 100 freestyle in 53.87 seconds. That did not beat the record he set on Tuesday, but it was easily fast enough to win.

“I didn’t expect to be swimming these times this early in the season. It just shows I got a lot stronger in the offseason, and it has boosted my confidence,” Martin said. “I still need to work on conditioning. I get tired pretty quickly. And my turns need work. I need to be quicker off the wall.”

Warner said Martin’s biggest improvement this year has come in his starts and his added strength in the offseason has played a factor in his early-season times.

“He had the form and technique last year. It was really just strength,” Warner said. “And the jump you usually make from freshman to sophomore year is big. He had that whole year of lifting for football and other sports and he puts in a lot of time for swimming, too. He’s added strength and his stroke is so much stronger. He’s so much more explosive on his starts this year.”

The winning 400 freestyle relay team featured MacK Copeland, Mason Gaulke, Cody Klein and Martin and they finished in 4:11.48. Grinnell swam a faster time but was disqualified during the race.

Martin entered the pool a few seconds behind Indianola’s anchor leg but moved into second within the first 50 meters.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Martin, Comer, Caleb Punt and Copeland finished third in 1:48.86. Indianola’s foursome won the race in 1:47.43 and Grinnell edged NCMP with a time of 1:48.62.

“Sometimes adding time isn’t a bad thing. It usually gets better before it gets worse,” Warner said. “As we get adjusted to swimming more meters in practice, things might slow down. But from here I think I could see us dropping time quickly.”

Comer’s winning time in the 200 IM was clocked in 2:37.14 and he also was second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.12.

Punt finished third in the 50 freestyle in 27.57 seconds, Gaulke took third in the 100 butterfly in 1:16.58 and Copeland swam to third in the 200 freestyle in 2:22.13.

Copeland’s time of 5:14.97 placed him fourth in the 400 freestyle and Punt was fifth in the 100 backstroke in 1:21.56.

“I think we are at a comfortable spot,” Warner said. “We have maybe swam more miles than they thought they would. But I have been impressed with the guys’ work ethic and the time they’ve put in.

“We have a lot of guys who are either new to the sport or haven’t swam in a while. Our starts and quick turns need work.”

Notes: Varsity regular Drew Fuller is expected to miss time due to an ankle injury. … Indianola won the junior varsity meet with 125 points. Vinton-Shellsburg was second with 42, NCMP scored 36 in third and Oskaloosa (23) and Grinnell (22) completed the field. Logan Russell led all NCMP JV swimmers with a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke.