Yesterday, Wisconsin’s defending division 2 state champions traveled to Marion, Iowa to take on some of Iowa’s strongest high school boys’ teams, including defending, two-time Iowa state champions Iowa City West and last year’s state fourth-place finisher Dowling Catholic from West Des Moines, Iowa.
Though Iowa City West won 8 of 11 events, Dowling Catholic and Monona Grove often took multiple lower placements. The teams went back and forth until the very last event, where ICW split up its fastest swimmers between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ 400 free relay teams. Although Monona (Eric Doll, Eric Storms, Vincent Giallombardo, and Ben McDade) won the event in 3:17.46, ICW grabbed second (Brennon Keen, Sam Deyak, Aidan Keen, and Will Scott: 3:19.02) and third place (Noah Bruns, Ethan McAreavy, Olliver Martin, and Mark McGlaughlin: 3:19.19), landing them a five point overall victory over Dowling Catholic and a 26 point victory over Monona. In the end, ICW took 430 overall points, followed by Dowling’s 425, Monona Grove’s 406, and Pleasant Valley High School’s 395.
Iowa City West’s McGlaughlin, Scott, and Martin each took two wins for ICW. Iowa high school sprinting phenom McGaughlin, a North Carolina State commit and double event state champion last year in the 50 and 100 free, showed off his versatility by winning the 200 IM in 1:58.19 and the 100 back in 50.23. Scott, another sprinter and an Iowa commit, took the win in the 50 free (20.79) and the 100 free (46.25). Martin, a junior, won the 100 fly (53.16) and the 100 breast (1:00.67). All three swimmers were members of two of the three ICW state champion high school relays last year.
Other individual wins of the day went to Iowa City West Mizzou commit and last year’s 200 free state champion Aidan Keen in the 200 free (1:42.62) and Monona Grove sophomore McDade, last year’s Wisconsin division 2 state champion in the 200 and 500 free, in the 500 free (4:41.68).
Big runner-up finishes of the meet came from McDade (200 free: 1:43.42), Monona’s Doll (50 free: 21.85, 100 free: 48.29), Monona’s Storms (100 fly: 53.76, 100 back: 52.81), Pleasant Valley’s Sam Lundry (200 IM: 2:04.68), Aidan Keen (500 free: 4:44.61), and Dowling’s Jerry Xu (100 breast: 1:03.88).
The Monona team of Storms, Bronz Geissler, Connor Keith, and Shane Sackett won the 200 medley relay in 1:41.04, well ahead of the Pleasant Valley team, who finished second in 1:43.47.
Iowa City West split up their fastest swimmers on both free relays to grab major points. In the 200 free relay, Aidan Keen, Ben Berhow, Brennon Keen, and Scott grabbed the win in 1:28.54, just edging out Monona’s Doll, Giallombardo, Sackett, and McDade, who finished in 1:28.95. ICW’s ‘B’ team of Martin, McAreavy, Bruns, and McGlaughlin finished just behind in 1:29.94.