Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High’s Lane Griffis finished off his high school swimming career with some of his best stuff.

The senior, who attends Highland High School but swims at West, placed sixth in the 100 breaststroke and eighth in the grueling 500 freestyle to help West claim 13th place at the boys state swimming meet at the University of Iowa Campus Wellness and Recreation Center.

“As a sophomore it was like shell shock walking up to the blocks for my 500 because you’ve got the crowd right there, and they’re roaring their heads off,” Griffis said. “Now as a senior I kind of look back and I just have to smile. Because it was the same experience. It’s just me. I’m smiling and I’m happy to swim all the way up to the blocks.”

Griffis placed eighth in the 500 coming out of the second of three heats. His 4:46.05 cut 4.90 seconds off his seed time in recording his career best.

“My goal was to get under that 4:50 mark, and I totally blew that out of the water, so I’m pretty happy,” Griffis said.

Did it feel like his time was going to be that good?

“It hurt like that,” he said. “At least for me I’ve never really figured out knowing what time you’re swimming until I finish and look at the board.”

Griffis also came out of the second heat to place sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 59.21. That was the race in which City High’s Forrest Frazier broke a 15-year old state record.

“No one’s going to catch Forrest,” Griffis said. “He’s a great swimmer; he’s super fast. I hope someday I’ll be as fast as he is. It’s kind of bizarre because he’s younger than me.

“But to me the 100 breast was another goal-smasher. I wanted to get under that minute mark and beat my teammate Ben (Berhow). At these meets I’ve been kind of chasing his tail. It’s nice to finally catch him. And way under a minute for me, that was awesome.”

“That was his lifetime best by a lot,” West coach Byron Butler said of the 100 breaststroke time. “He’s never broken a minute before. He was just dead on today. His 500 was great. He took four seconds off his lifetime best. He had a great last high school meet. I’m really proud of him.”

Sophomore Izaak Hayek had a tough day. Competing in the 200 individual medley, an event in which he placed second at the MVC Super meet, he appeared to win the second heat in 1:57.75. That time would have given him eighth place overall, but after conferring officials disqualified Hayek.

“The officials were saying he was following through with a breaststroke kick and coming down and doing a dolphin kick after each of them,” Butler said.

Butler thought that DQ affected Hayek in his next event, the 100 butterfly, an event he won at the MVC meet. Hayek won his heat, the second of three, in 51.03, a two-second improvement on his seed time and placed fourth overall.

“His goal was to break 50 seconds this year, and I think we could have been really close to that,” Butler said. “It really deflated him and he’s a sophomore, and it’s tough to take that. His best time is actually 50.7 so he was a little off.”

West (Michael Kimball, Valeri Trussov, Ben Berhow, Brennon Keen) placed eighth in the 200 freestyle relay, also out of the second heat. The Trojans’ time of 127.76 cut almost two seconds off their seed time.

“We scored more points than we were seeded to get,” Butler said. “I’m just really proud of the guys who stepped up. We switched some guys in some relays and we went a lot faster today.”

Boys State Swimming

University of Iowa Campus Wellness and Recreation Center

Team totals – 1. Ames 221; 2. WDM Valley 220; 3T. Bettendorf 166.5; 3T. Ankeny 166.5; 5.  Waukee 153; 6. Dowling 127.5; 7. Iowa City High 126; 8. Pleasant Valley 122; 9. Johnston 119; 10T. Cedar Rapids Washington 104.5; 10T. Linn-Mar 104.5; 12. Cedar Falls 101; 13. West High 79; 14. Fort Dodge 58; 15. Council Bluffs Lewis Central 53; 16. Sioux City 33; 17. Dubuque Hempstead 30; 18. Newton-Pella 24; 19. Davenport Central 23.5; 20. Mason City 23; 21. Decorah 20; 22. Carroll 18; 23T. Des Moines Roosevelt 15; 23T. Dubuque Senior 15; 25. Burlington 14.5; 26. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 12.5; 27. Boone 6; 28. Keokuk 5; 29. Marshalltown 4.5; 30. Des Moines East 3; 31. Southeast Polk 1; 32. Ottumwa 0.5.

Individual results

(Top eight and all local placewinners)

200 Medley Relay: 1. Ames (Ethan Johnson, Dalton Lillibridge, Misho Mahrous, Nick Matthews) 1:33.83; 2. City High (Forrest Frazier, Louis Stephan, Eric Thomas, Mickale Sadecky) 1:34.28; 3. West Des Moines Valley 1:34.49; 4. Cedar Rapids Washington 1:34.98; 5. Bettendorf 1:35.00; 6. Pleasant Valley 1:25.06; 7. Waukee 1:36.39; 8. Johnston 1:37.33; 10. West High (Izaak Hayek, Ben Berhow, Valeri Trussov, Brennon Keen) 1:37.83.

200 Freestyle – 1. Jackson Allmon (CBLC) 1:39.11; 2. Andrew Fierke (Fort Dodge) 1:40.91; 3. Nick Chase (Dowling) 1:41.06; 4. Dylan Moffat (Cedar Falls) 1:41.12; 5. Trent Frandson (Ankeny) 1:42.11; 6. Charlie Bunn (Bett) 1:42.85; 7. Casey Bach (WDM Valley)1:43.16; 8. Evan Porter (WDM Valley) 1:43.18.

200 Individual Medley – 1. Caleb Aman (Bettendorf) 1:50.49; 2. Cameron Linder (Waukee) 1:53.30; 3. Scott Lair (Johnston) 1:54.06; 4. John Culver (Dowling) 1:55.13; 5. Connor Neils (Ankeny) 1:55.77; 6. Grant Lair (Johnston) 1:57.10; 7. Louis Stephan (City High) 1:57.35; 8. William Nash (PV) 1:58.30; 16. Eric Thomas (City High) 2:01.42.

50 Freestyle – 1. Jacob Keller (WDM Valley) 20.75; 2. Kevin Burke (PV) 21.11; 3. Mitchell Pollit (Waukee) 21.37; 4. Max Martin (Ankeny) 21.40; 5. Andrew Ottavian (Bett) and Matt Peng (Linn-Mar) 21.56; 7. Sebastian Pek (Carroll) 21.57; 8. Caleb Gaylor (Newton-Pella) 21.68.

100 Butterfly – 1. Forrest Frazier (City High) 49.01; 2. Dalton Lillibri (Ames) 50.49; 3. Matt Peng (LM) 50.60; 4. Izaak Hayek (West High) 51.03; 5. Gregg Lichinsky (Valley) 51.09; 6. Dalton Hammel (Dubuque Hempstead) 51.73; 7. Misho Mahrous (Ames) 52.37; 8. Cameron Briggs (Waukee) 52.63.

100 Freestyle – 1. Jackson Allmon (CBLC) 45.61; 2. Jacob Keller (Valley) 45.92; 3. Charlie Bunn (Bett) 46.60; 4. William Rankin (Sioux City) 46.71; 5. James Bentley (Ames) 46.77; 6. Casey Bach (Valley) 46.89; 7. Nathan McKay (PV) 47.13; 8. Brycen Snell (LM) 47.25.

500 Freestyle – 1. Dylan Moffat (CF) 4:27.77; 2. Trent Frandson (Ankeny) 4:32.42; 3. Andrew Fierke (FD) 4:32.94; 4. Cameron Linder (Waukee) 4:38.31; 5. Soma Szabo (Ames) 4:45.73; 6. Scott Lair (Johnston) 4:45.82; 7. Zach Kolker (CRW) 4:46.02; 8. Lane Griffis (West High) 4:46.05; 11. Isaac Wiegel (City High) 4:49.39.

200 Freestyle Relay – 1. Bettendorf (Charlie Bunn, Luke Nickles, Andrew Ottavianelli, Caleb Aman) 1:24.82; 2. West Des Moines Valley 1:25.17; 3. Ankeny 1:26.13; 4. Ames 1:26.21; 5. Dowling 1:26.21; 6. Waukee 1:26.96; 7. Linn-Mar 1:27.04; 8. West High (Michael Kimball, Valeri Trussov, Ben Berhow, Brennon Keen) 1:27.76.

100 Backstroke – 1. Nick Chase (Dowling) 49.48; 2. Caleb Aman (Bett) 50.81; 3. Evan Porter 51.24; 4. Kaleb Donels (CRW) 51.37; 5. Kevin Burke (PV) 51.66; 6. John Culver (Dowling) 51.86; 7. Cameron Briggs (Waukee) 51.99; 8. Ethan Johnson (Ames) 52.20.

100 Breaststroke – 1. Forrest Frazier (City High) 54.16; 2. Dalton Lillibri (Ames) 56.78; 3. Noah Faldet (Decorah) 57.36; 4. Louis Stephan (City High) 57.94; 5. Nick Matthews (Ames) 58.47; 6. Lane Griffis (West) 59.21; 7. Derek Johnson (Mason City) 59.81; 8. Jacob McCredie (PV) 59.93; 13. Ben Berhow (West) 1:00.38.

 400 Freestyle Relay – 1. West Des Moines Valley (Gregg Lichinsky, Evan Porter, Casey Bach, Jacob Keller) 3:06.87; 2. Ames 3:10.96; 3. Ankeny 3:11.15; 4.  Waukee 3:12.48; 5. Linn-Mar 3:12.68; 6. Pleasant Valley 3:12.71; 7. Cedar Falls 3:12.71; 8. Johnston 3:13.37; 9. City High (Mickale Sadecky, Eric Thomas, Louis Stephan, Forrest Frazier) 3:14.73.