Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – On some teams a final end of the year goal or an ultimate achievement is never really discussed.

That has not been the case for the West High swim team this season.

Winning a state title was never the elephant in the room, or in this case the pool, when the Trojans discussed their goals for the season.

In fact, the state title talk began all the way back at the start of last season.

“We talked about winning a state title last season,” senior Izaak Hajek said. “That’s been a goal since the beginning of last year. Once the end of state came last year we knew that this was definitely going to be very accomplishable for us.”

A seventh-place finish at the state meet last season did nothing to dampen those state title talks.

As head coach Byron Butler set up his postseason plans a year ago he saw the potential for this season.

On the first day of practice this season Butler addressed the idea that West High was a state title contender, effectively making a championship the top goal.

“Day one we talked about that being the goal,” Butler said. “Honestly before districts last year we were already thinking about what our lineup could look like this year and said we might get fifth this year but next year I think we can win the whole thing. To jump to seventh to potentially getting first would be awesome and that’s always been the goal.”

The opportunity to make good on that goal that has been more than a year in the making comes on Saturday at 12:10 at the University of Iowa Aquatic Center.

West High enters the State Swimming Meet the favorite to claim its first state title since winning the second of back-to-back titles in 2015.

“Of course, every single day we have our own goals and we try to hit those goals daily and those goals kind of build up to the final goal and for every team in the state that final goal is to win a state championship,” West High senior James Pinter said. “We think that luck is where opportunity and preparation meet and we are looking to get pretty lucky on Saturday.”

In the year after its back-to-back titles West High was runner-up to Waukee in 2016.

West High hasn’t been inside the top six since that runner-up finish in 2016 but has the top-end talent, depth and overall firepower to climb all the way back to the top this season.

Defending state champion Ankeny and last year’s runner-up Waukee will again be in the title hunt and should be among the Trojan’s top challengers on Saturday.

“We’ve all been hearing about everything West High accomplished (from 2014 to 2016) and it’s amazing to see that we are close to being right there with them,” Hajek said. “We’ve always wanted to put West back at where they were four years ago it’s cool to see that goal coming into place.”

West High followed up an unbeaten regular season with a title at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet and a dominant showing the district meet last Saturday.

The Trojans won seven events on its way to the district title.

It was definitely a big confidence booster since we weren’t sure where we were going to be in the championship season or how good our taper is,” Pinter said. “That’s always kind of a question going into championship season but districts was all about setting up a really nice state meet and we think we did that perfectly.”

West High has a swimmer ranked in the top five in six of eight individual events and all three West High relays rank in the top two.

Pinter has the top time in the state this season in the 100 backstroke at 50.2 and the second fastest time in the 200 freestyle at 1:40.08.

Hajek has the second fastest time in the 100 butterfly (50.54), freshman Diggory Dillingham has the second fastest time in the 50 freestyle (20.87) and the Trojan’s 200 medley relay team owns the best time in the state at 1:33.16.

“I’m super proud of how fast we have been the entire season but we still aren’t really satisfied,” Pinter said. “We’ve still got a lot more to do for Saturday and we still have a lot more in the tank.”

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