Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The Mississippi Valley Conference boys swimming Super Meet comes at an odd time in the swimming calendar in terms of preparation and training. It is an important meet, but it doesn’t carry the weight of the district meet a week later or the state meet after that. Training is still full bore, but tapering will start soon.

Still, West High won one event, was second in two others and third in two to place second to Cedar Falls Saturday at the University of Iowa pool. The Tigers finished with 331 points, 26 ahead of West High. Cedar Rapids Washington was third. City High, behind two victories from sophomore Forrest Frazier was seventh.

“We’re just trying to get ready for the end of the season,” Frazier said. “Get our whole team swimming fast and get as many people qualified for state as possible.”

West coach Byron Butler said he was pleased with his team’s consistency in approach this season and in this meet.

“Every single one of them has super high expectations for themselves,” Butler said. “More often than not they have the effort to match those expectations, and they really put it out there. I’m really proud of that. We had a lot of best times today.

“Some of our guys were disappointed in a few swims here or there, but we have a couple, three weeks to clean that up.”

Frazier won the 100 breaststroke in 57.22 seconds, tying the MVC record. West’s Lane Griffis was second. Frazier’s season-best time coming in was 58.03.

“It felt like a good race; it just felt solid from the beginning,” Frazier said. “My momentum just kept going throughout the whole race. I had a really good back half, which is something I’ve been wanting to see.”

“Forrest tied the conference record in the 100 breaststroke,” City High coach Zane Hugo said. “It’s the current state record-holder that set it. If you look at the progression he’s on, he’s on his way to breaking the state record. It’s an exciting year for him for sure.”

“He’s an amazing swimmer,” Griffis said of Frazier. “A great sprinter.”

Frazier also won the 200 individual medley in 1:53.39 ahead of West’s Izaak Hayek. Hayek did a nice job on the final leg to push past Cedar Falls’ Dawson Bremner.

“In the IM my butterfly is usually pretty good going out (on the first leg),” Frazier said. “And my breaststroke is usually a big factor in the IM. In the IM the breaststroke is usually where the race is won.”

Hayek won the 100 butterfly in 52.02, out-touching Linn-Mar’s Matt Peng in one of the closest races of the day.

In addition to his second in the 100 breaststroke, Griffis was third in the marathon 500 freestyle.

“It is a special kind of torture,” Griffis said. “It’s a love-hate relationship really. Because you swim the race and you feel good about the time. During the race you wish it was over but when you’re done with the race you kind of miss it.

“Today I didn’t go as fast as I wanted to but I still look back on the race and how painful it was and it was a good race. I couldn’t swim it any better today.”

Griffis said he makes an effort to treat every meet as if it were the most important of the season.

“But there’s definitely a difference between the conference meet and the district meet,” he said. “Because the district meet, in my opinion, is the most important meet and that includes state because that’s how you get to state.”

And that’s why the tapering enters the picture before the districts.

West High was second to Washington in the 200 medley relay. West’s Ben Berhow was third in the 100 breaststroke.

City High senior Mickale Sadecky was fourth in the 100 freestyle and fifth in the 50 freestyle, and Eric Thomas was fifth in the 100 backstroke.

“(Thomas) has been a strong swimmer for us since freshman year,” Hugo said. “He’s just getting a little bit better every year. Mickale has come along rapidly in the last two years.”

 “We had a lot of good swims today. We didn’t have a lot of our top-end swimmers here today. I think we could have been a little bit more competitive, but it’s good to see the guys who are here on the podium.”

MVC Super Meet

Team scores – 1. Cedar Falls 331; 2. West High 305; 3. C.R. Washington 302; 4. Linn-Mar 241; 5. Dubuque Hempstead 192; 6. Dubuque Senior 179; 7. City High 169; 8. C.R. Kennedy 155; 9. Waterloo 81; 10. C.R. Jefferson 75.

Individual results (winner and top two local placewinners per team)

200 Medley Relay – 1. C.R. Washington 1:39.43, 2. West (Izaak Hayek, Ben Berhow, Valeri Trussov, Brennon Keen) 1:39.77, 3. City High (Eric Thomas, Forrest Frazier, Patrick Bui, Mickale Sadecky) 1:42.74.

200 Freestyle – 1. Dylan Moffatt, CF, 1:44.82, 11. Tate Happel (ICW) 1:56.27, 12. John Li (ICW) 1:58.61.

200 Individual Medley – 1. Forrest Frazier (ICC) 1:53.39, 2. Izaak Hayek (ICW) 2:01.41, 9. Valeri Trussov (ICW) 2:11.01.

50 Freestyle – 1. Matt Peng (LM) 22.18, 5. Mickale Sadecky (ICC) 22.77, 8. Michael Kimball (ICW)23.11, 9. Brennon Keen (ICW) 23.21, 13. Erik Lycke (ICC) 23.81.

100 Butterfly – 1. Izaak Hayek (ICW) 52.02, 7. Valeri Trussov (ICW) 56.83, 15. Samual Naylor (ICC)59.59.

100 Freestyle – 1. Brycen Snell (LM) 48.16, 4. Mickale Sadecky (ICC) 50.60, 6. Ben Berhow (ICW) 50.92, 9. Brennon Keen (ICW) 51.43.

500 Freestyle – 1. Dylan Moffat (CF) 4:40.22, 3. Lane Griffis (ICW) 4:54.17, 8. Tate Happel (ICW) 5:11.12, 14. Joe Kueter (ICC) 5:33.54.

200 Freestyle relay – 1. Cedar Falls 1:29.24, 4. City High (Forrest Frazier, Eric Thomas, Erik Lycke, Mickale Sadecky) 1:31.31.

100 Backstroke – 1. Kaleb Donels (CRW) 53.12, 5. Eric Thomas (ICC) 58.02, 8. John Li (ICW)58.63.

100 Breaststroke – 1. Forrest Frazier (ICC) 57.22, 2. Lane Griffis (ICW) 1:01.34, 3. Ben Berhow (ICW) 1:02.40.

400 Freestyle relay – 1. Cedar Falls 3:14.85, 6. Iowa City West (Tate Happel, Michael Kimball, Valeri Trussov, Lane Griffis) 3:27.16, 10. City High (Erik Lycke, Patrick Bui, Samual Naylor, Joe Kueter) 3:44.57.