Des Moines Lincoln spoils Senior Night for Newton boys swim team

Finn Martin set two new school records, Caleb Punt was part of four wins and the Newton boys swim team won seven of the 11 events, but Des Moines Lincoln was a bit deeper on Tuesday.

The Cardinals were missing a key varsity swimmer and Ethan Comer was limited to only three events due to an illness, and the Railsplitters spoiled Newton’s Senior Night with a 94-75 victory at the Newton YMCA.

Newton started its night with a win in the 200-meter medley relay and ended it with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay.

Punt was part of both relay wins and also swam to victories in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly and Martin set new school records in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

Martin, Comer, Ethan Freese, Logan Russell, Landon Robertson and manager Paxton Panada were recognized after the 50 freestyle for Senior Night. Kaden Marshall missed the meet due to an illness.

Martin won the 200 IM in a career-best time of 2 minutes, 11.9 seconds. That was 5.5 seconds than the previous school record of 2:16.44 set by Isaak Webb in 2014.

The Notre Dame recruit won the 100 backstroke in a career-best 1:00.98. That also broke a previous record of Webb’s, who posted a time of 1:02.85 in 2014.

The other individual wins came from Comer in the 100 breaststroke and Punt’s two freestyle victories.

Comer won the 100 breaststroke in 1:15.31, and Punt’s winning times in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly were clocked in 26.0 seconds and 1:10.05, respectively. Caleb Van Zee (1:18.73) gave Newton a 1-3 finish in the 100 butterfly.

The Cardinals didn’t double up in enough individual events though. Lincoln was 1-3-4 in the 200 freestyle relay and the 200 freestyle. The Rails also finished 1-2 in the 400 freestyle, 1-3 in the 100 freestyle and 2-3 in the 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay, 100 backstroke and 200 IM.

Meyer placed second in a pair of freestyle events. He was the runner-up in the 200 freestyle in 2:20.45 and placed second in the 100 freestyle in 59.0 seconds.

Blaine Brooks (5:21.44) placed third in the 400 freestyle and Lamont (1:08.21) and Heath Anderson (3:14.42) finished fourth in the 100 freestyle and 200 IM, respectively.

The winning 200 medley relay team featured Meyer, Comer, Van Zee and Punt and they won the race in 2:01.78.

The 400 freestyle relay team of Martin, Lamont, Meyer and Punt finished first in 4:00.01.

Van Zee, Comer, Anderson and Martin took second in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:54.67.

Notes: The Newton junior varsity lost 33-21 in its matchup with Lincoln. Sean Sullivan scored the Cardinals’ lone JV win in the 100 freestyle. He was clocked in 1:18.47. … Martin and Comer were on the swim team for four years, Russell spent three years in the program and Freese and Robertson are out for the first time. Panada served as the team’s manager in each of the past four years.