Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Jordan Christensen admits, for a brief moment it was difficult to picture West High as a state title contender.

No one can blame Christensen, a junior standout for the Trojans, for being the slightest bit skeptical.

West High graduated key seniors from its 2020 state championship team including standout in the pool and leaders out of the water like James Pinter and Izaak Hajek.

The Trojans found themselves without several other important contributors after injuries and transfers.

Suddenly the prospect of a repeat title seemed slightly far-fetched.

“At the beginning,” Christensen said before pausing. “It was tough to believe if I’m being honest.”

Yet, despite the roster defections and a regular season that featuring Covid complications the Trojans find themselves where they always seem to be in February – in the state title conversation.

“It was hard to believe we could win another state championship this year but as we got close to the end of the season we realized we have a shot to do it again,” Christensen said. “We know the potential we have.”

Even with the challenges West High posted another unbeaten regular season and won the district title by 69 points while winning six event titles.

West High enters the State Swimming Meet on Saturday at Linn-Mar High School in Marion at Noon among the championship front runners.

“We’re definitely a state championship winning quality of team,” senior Luke Nichols said. “With the new guys coming, guys developing more there is no doubt we are potential state champs. Obviously, the pandemic and guys leaving is going to make it a little harder but there is definitely potential for us to win.”

Christensen has taken a big step forward this season as the Trojans have made up for the lost point production off last year’s team.

The junior enters the state meet with the third fastest qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke and ninth best time in the 200 IM.

“With guys like James and Izaak graduating I realized that myself and some of the upperclassmen really have to set the team environment,” Christensen said. “Those guys really helped show me what a leader is. It’s not just someone that is telling people what to do it’s really to encourage people and make sure that your teammates are focused on their goals.”

The formula for West High to compete with Waukee and Ankeny in the title hunt is similar to last season – relay success and depth.

West High enters with the top qualifying times in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays and has the ninth fastest time from district meets in the 400 freestyle relay.

The depth that leads to strong relay teams has become as much of a trademark of recent West High teams as its expectation of excellence.

“We expect to win,” Nichols said. “We expect to win dual meets and in-season invites and day in and day out perform our best. Even if we are tired from a morning practice that day or from the lift the day before we are definitely always expecting to do our best.”

Depth will once again be critical for West High.

The Trojans don’t have a swimmer seeded higher than third but have five individual entries with top-10 seeds along with all three relays.

“We may not get a lot of first or second places but we will get third, fourth, fifth and we will rack up points,” Christensen said. “It’s really amazing how many points we get through that and it’s been a big part of our success.”

Freshman Holden Carter is seeded fifth in the 100 fly, Kirk Brotherton has the sixth fastest 50 freestyle time and Boyd Skelley is 10^th entering the 100 backstroke.

“You look at the top teams and you have Waukee and Ankeny and they have two guys in every event that are just elite, solid guys,” Butler said. “We lost a little of that losing James and Izaak and Diggory (Dillingham) but I think our third guy is consistently a little better than some of the teams around the state and we are hoping some of our guys will move up. Depth is going to be the way we move up and give ourselves an opportunity.”

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