Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Anyone who has followed prep swimming in the state of Iowa the past few years is likely familiar with the pool pedigree of the Martin family.  

Oliver Martin was a state title winner that helped West High claim state team titles before heading to Michigan to play football.

Sister Ruby Martin enjoyed a stellar club career and currently swims at Arizona State.

It didn’t take long for the next Martin to make her mark on the prep swimming scene.

West High freshman Scarlet Martin capped a stellar debut season with four top-five finishes at the state meet including a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly.

“It’s motivational seeing how much success (my siblings) have had,” Martin said. “It makes me excited for my future.”

In her first trip to the state meet Martin impressed.

Martin added a third-place finish in the 200 IM and helped the West High 200 and 400 relay teams to top-five finishes.

“It was a lot of fun, I was really nervous with all the people and how loud it was,” Martin said. “All my teammates where there and that helped and made it a lot more fun.”

After one season of high school swimming Martin is already part of four school records.

Her state meet times set new school-record marks in the 100 fly and 200 IM and both of the relay squads she competed on set new West High marks at the state meet at the Marshalltown YMCA.

The early success has come as no surprise to West High head coach Byron Butler.

“I know how fast they all are,” Butler said of the Martin kids. “I coached Oliver for a couple of years, I’ve seen Ruby throughout her career and she’s over at ASU now winning dual meets for them and I knew the pedigree that was coming in for Scarlet and I knew she was going to perform.”

Scarlet Martin had a small amount of state meet experience before her first race at the event.

She watched from the stands as Oliver won state titles as a competitor.

That experience came in handy for Martin when dealing with the noise and possible distractions that come with the state meet.

“The atmosphere in there is a lot different than club meets, there are a lot more people packed into a small little area and it’s super loud,” Martin said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Martin came up just shy of a state title in the 100 fly finishing just .05 seconds behind West Des Moines Dowling junior Bert Quass in a time of 54.21.

Martin was third in the 200 IM in 2:03.33. Both of those times were career bests for Martin.

“One of my goals was to drop time and I obviously did that and one of my other goals was to win the 100 fly and I was a little upset about that,” Martin said. “Hopefully next year I can win that.”

Martin teamed with sophomore Aurora Roghair and fellow freshman Ella Hochstetler and Olivia Taeger to place fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:37.24.

The West High 400 freestyle relay team of Martin, Roghair, Taeger and junior Lily Ernst was third in 3:30.13.

Martin enjoyed the relay success as much, if not more than her individual performances.

“It is more of a team sport than individual and it’s a lot more fun getting to be there for your teammates,” Martin said. “That is a lot different than club. I loved the high school season it was a lot of fun.”

Butler has been impressed with Martin in the water and out of the water during her freshman season.

“The thing that has impressed me most about Scarlet is that she is here for her friends and she is very socially driven,” Butler said. “She wants to win that’s not gone anywhere and she has talent to do but she’s very socially driven, she is very coachable and it’s been very pleasant the whole year.”