Martin wins twice as Newton swimmers open with seventh-place finish at Ankeny

ANKENY — Finn Martin won two individual freestyle events, and the Newton boys swim team finished seventh in the eight-team field at the Ankeny Sprint Invitational on Tuesday.

The Cardinals opened the season with 124 points. That was better than Johnston’s 92 in eighth.

Waukee Northwest won the meet championship with 447 points. The rest of the field included Waukee (363.5), West Des Moines Valley (340), Dowling Catholic (296), Ankeny (293.5) and Boone (208).

Martin won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.99 seconds and his winning time in the 100 freestyle was clocked in 46.68.

The runner-up in the 50 posted a time of 22.08 and a pair of Valley Tigers finished 2-3 in the 100 freestyle. Eli DeJong posted a time of 47.25 in second.

The Cardinals were sixth in both the 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay with Martin, Ethan Comer, Hudson Meyer and Caleb Punt.

The quartet finished the 200 medley relay in 1 minute, 42.22 seconds. That was less than a second behind host Ankeny (1:41.39), and Waukee won the race in 1:36.89.

In the 200 freestyle relay, the Cardinal foursome posted a time of 1:33.44. That was .43 seconds back of Dowling (1:33.01) and Boone won the race in 1:29.09.