Barton’s podium finish highlights Newton’s emotional state swim meet

IOWA CITY — Harper Barton and Tori White finalized their prep swimming careers during a pair of emotional days at the Iowa High School State Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday and Friday.

The state swim meet moved to the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, and the Cardinal seniors experienced an emotional roller coaster over the course of the two-day event.

“It’s really sad. I’m really proud of the team, really happy I got to swim with my sister and I’ve liked the outcomes so far,” Barton said after her two individual events were completed at the state meet.

Barton led the charge for the Newton girls swim team, scoring the first podium finish for a Newton High School swimmer since Hannah Scotton placed sixth in 2014.

White just missed qualifying for the ‘B’ final in the 100-yard backstroke preliminaries on Thursday but helped the Cardinals place ninth in both freestyle relays.

She ended her time as an Aquagirl and a Cardinal wanting more though.

“The last couple of years swimming on this team has meant the world to me,” White said. “I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like not seeing Harper every day. We’ve been through a lot together, and I’m so happy with how this year has gone and all the accomplishments we’ve had together. It was just amazing.”

The state swim meet format changed a bit with the move to Iowa City. The top 16 finishers in each event scored team points and the points were doubled for relays.

The two ninth-place finishes netted the Cardinals 36 points, and Barton scored 23 as an individual swimming in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Newton finished 13th in the final team standings for the second straight season.

The 17th-ranked Cardinals scored 61 points. That was one point better than No. 15 Waterloo West (60), one point behind No. 13 Council Bluffs Lewis Central (62) and two back of both No. 5 Waukee (63) and No. 11 Iowa City West (63), who tied for 10th. Waukee got 23 of those points from diving though.

That’s not all that bad for a program that didn’t have a coaching staff until right before the season started basically.

“I would say for the strange kind of season that it was, it was extremely successful,” Newton head girls swim coach Kaylee Franke said. “I was a late hired commuter coach new to the community and had a husband overseas in the military at the time. We had a weird start to our season with everything stacked on top of each other.

“The seniors were on their third coach in four years, and with all the change and variation, within the last four years even, we were successful.”

Barton climbed the podium for the first time in the her career. She qualified for the ‘A’ final in the 100 freestyle on Thursday but just missed out on that same feat in the 50 freestyle.

Barton was eighth in the preliminary heats of the 100 freestyle but moved up to fifth in the ‘A’ final race. She posted career-best times of 53.43 and 52.89 seconds and took fifth out of Lane 8.

“It was really exciting. I was in lane 8 and tried to make the best out of that,” Barton said. “All the other girls can’t see me in Lane 8 very well so I had that advantage. I kind of had a sneak attack from that spot.

“That was my last high school race, and I wanted to just give it my all.”

Barton placed 10th in the 50 freestyle with a career-best time of 24.27 in the prelims. She needed a 24.24 to advance to the ‘A’ final but got redemption in the ‘B’ final with a career-best 24.2 and moved up to ninth overall.

She was faster than three swimmers in the ‘A’ final on Friday, but the highest a ‘B’ final swimmer can go is ninth.

Six swimmers went under 24 seconds in the prelims. That would have set a new school record at Newton. Barton was ninth in the event last year, too.

“(Barton) earned that finish today,” Franke said about Barton’s fifth-place finish. “I started seeing (Barton) hit that pool well before I even took the job. She has the drive, intentionality and the focus to say I want this and I want this no matter what it takes to get there.”

The next best finisher for the Cardinals came from freshman Reid McCloud in the 500 freestyle. She made the ‘B’ final on Thursday and swam to a 15th-place finish on Friday.

McCloud was 13th in the preliminary heats with a time of 5 minutes, 15.23 seconds. It took a 5:10.98 to advance to the ‘A’ final. She dropped to 15th in the ‘B’ final after posting a time of 5:16.87.

She also competed in the 200 freestyle prelims on Thursday and placed 19th overall with a time of 1:58.37. It took a 1:56.78 to reach the top 16 and advance to the ‘B’ final.

“Reid McCloud had a great placing for a freshman,” Franke said. “We are more than happy to take 15th. (McCloud) understands pacing, but we have some technique things to shift and then she’ll go where she needs to go.”

The final individual qualifier was White in the 100 backstroke. She did not make the ‘B’ final but secured the best finish at the state meet of her career and posted the second-best time of her career in 1:01.22.

“She led in the pool, had great splits on both relays and she hit it hard this weekend,” Franke said about White.

It took a 1:00.77 to make the consolation final, and 11 swimmers went under 1 minute in the preliminary round. White placed 24th last year.

“I’m not too upset about that,” White said. “I was really happy to get 19th and be in the conversation to make finals because last year I wasn’t really anywhere close. And I’m really proud of myself for going 1:01 two times in a row. It felt really good.”

The first group of Cardinals to hit the pool on Friday were Emalee Weuve, Alexa Van Maanen, Julia Nedder and Kimberlee Miller.

That foursome competed in the 200 medley relay and finished 32nd in 2:01.8. All four swimmers are underclassmen.

White, Temple Barton, McCloud and Harper Barton finished ninth in the 200 freestyle relay in a season-best 1:40.39. That time was .67 seconds back of eighth.

McCloud, Temple Barton, White and Harper Barton finished ninth in the 400 freestyle relay in a season-best 3:40.87.

The eighth-place team posted a time of 3:38.41, but West Des Moines Valley pulled a surprising 3:36.73 in the third heat in front of Newton.

“We were really trying to make podium in both and get the record, too,” White said. “Valley came out of nowhere in the third heat. I saw it before we went, and I was like ‘oh my gosh.’ But we just had to beat one team in our heat. It didn’t come down to Valley. We just didn’t beat the team out of lane 8.”

The top four teams in the Bound Power Rankings finished in the top four spots of the team standings.

Top-ranked Dowling Catholic won the state championship with 340 points.

Second-ranked Cedar Falls (264), third-ranked Waukee Northwest (250) and fourth-ranked Ames (155) were second, third and fourth, respectively, but No. 12 Sioux City West (136) edged No. 10 Bettendorf (132) in fifth.

No. 18 West Des Moines Valley (100) was seventh, followed by No. 9 Linn-Mar (99) and No. 16 Pleasant Valley (68).

Waukee Northwest’s Hayden Bailey won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, Sioux City West’s Natalie Patee was a two-event state champion in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle and Valley’s Charlie DeJong won the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

Waukee Northwest won a meet-high three titles. Six different programs won at least one state title.

Southeast Polk (37) in 18th and Grinnell/BGM/Baxter (34) in 20th scored all of their points in diving.

The Cardinals lose three seniors to graduation, including Harper Barton, White and Brilea Moffitt, who was one of Newton’s state relay alternates.

Barton plans to swim in college but is undecided on a school. White said her future is in track and field but also is undecided on a school.

“They all bring something different to the table, and all three are going to be hard to say goodbye to,” Franke said about her senior class. “All three of my seniors will be tough to replace.”

Notes: Harper Barton was 20th in the 100 freestyle in 2023. She was part of two top-10 relays last season, swam on two top-16 relays in 2023 and helped Newton place 12th in the 200 freestyle relay in 2022, which was the final season for legendary coach Sarah Patterson. White joined Harper Barton on last year’s eighth-place 200 freestyle relay team but only the top six finishers reached the podium that season. … Stephas reached the podium in the 100 butterfly in three straight seasons from 2012 to 2014. The program’s most recent podium finisher was Hannah Nedder, who placed fourth in the 100 butterfly in 2021. … Newton’s swim team still consists of a handful of athletes from Pella, including McCloud, Julia Nedder, Weuve and state relay alternate Peyton Phillips. With only one class in swimming, several programs around the state have athletes from multiple school districts competing on their squads. Baxter’s Camryn Russell won her second consecutive state diving title competing for Grinnell, Dallas Center-Grimes athletes swim for Johnston and Norwalk also does not have its own team. Lewis Central’s program has athletes from seven different districts, according to Franke. “We have the capacity in the future to become a powerhouse by supporting the communities around Newton having access to the sport as well as elevating within Newton itself,” Franke said. “We know how to be a small-town program with big time numbers if we do this right. We have to be very careful to not ostracize ourselves to communities around us and instead be their home for swimming. We can carry our name forward, but we also want to carry a swim legacy, too. That’s our intention for the future.”