Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

MARION – A rousing relay start peppered with standout individual performances produced a satisfying end to West High boys’ swimming season unlike any other.

The defending state champion Trojans finished among the top eight placewinners in eight of 11 events, including a win in the 200 medley relay, for a third-place finish in the team standings at the Iowa High School Athletic Association boys’ swimming state championships Saturday at Linn-Mar Aquatic Center.

“Our message after districts was, ‘We’re at 187 (team points) or something coming into the meet and we just want to try and move up as much as possible’,” West High coach Byron Butler said. “The goal was top three. … Guys got third, we moved up 20 points and they raced hard and supported each other all day and had some fun.”

The Trojans finished with 208.5 team points, 30 behind second-place Ankeny.

With 268.5 points, Waukee won the team title for the first time since earning back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.

“I was very pleased with the guy’s performances,” junior Kirk Brotherton said. “Obviously with coronavirus, it is a tough situation. So we had to come in here and put on our game faces and go as fast as we could. For the most part today, we definitely did that.”

Coaches and swimmers were thankful everyone was able to even get to this point of the season, which was touch-and-go from the outset due to coronavirus restrictions.

West High lost five weeks of preparation time at the beginning in November and December when the Iowa City Community School District shifted to online-only coursework.

“We are all super-pumped that we were able to have something,” Christensen said. “We missed out on the first five weeks of our season. We were just really happy to get back in the water and just stay that way until state.”

Coronavirus restrictions even had a say in the location of this year’s state meet, which was moved from the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center pool at the University of Iowa to Linn-Mar.

No spectators were allowed, which was a stark contrast to the raucous environment traditionally present at a state swim meet.

The difference was not all that palpable to the competitors.

“When we get up there on the block, right before our events, we are in our own zone,” West junior Jordan Christensen said. “We’re focused on our race, what we are going to do. But on the outside, in the bleachers, we’re up there cheering for our teammates and then we are in our zone there. It is really just about teamwork for us and we hardly notice it.”

Christensen was excellent all day for the Trojans.

In addition to individual finishes of sixth place in the 200-yard individual medley and runner-up in the 100 breaststroke, Christensen swam the breaststroke portion of a 200-medley relay victory along with junior Boyd Skelley (backstroke portion), freshman Holden Carter (butterfly) and senior Luke Nichols (freestyle).

After placing second in the event at state in each of the last two seasons, the Trojans’ time of 1:32.24 earned automatic All-American status and was nearly two full seconds better than runner-up Waukee (1:34.10).

“That was our big goal,” Christensen said. “Coming into state, we were coming in first so we knew we had a big chance to win it. To blow everybody out by almost two seconds is amazing. We didn’t expect to win by that much. It is just teamwork. We push each other, we got really hyped up and it paid off. We were so ecstatic to win that relay.”

The Trojans – a swim program comprised of students from West, Iowa City Liberty, Iowa City Regina, Hillcrest Academy and Washington (Iowa) – piled up over a hundred points alone from individual events.

Brotherton – a Liberty student – reached the podium with a fourth-place finish in the 50 freestyle (21.15) and fifth in the 100 (46.54).

“Shut off the brain and swim,” Brotherton said. “That’s what I did. Dealing with some outside lanes, it didn’t matter. We just swam as fast as we could and got the place we did.”

Brotherton was joined on the 50 freestyle podium by senior Luke Nichols, who placed seventh in 21.45.

Freshman Holden Carter placed eighth in the 100 butterfly and also scored points for the Trojans in the 100 backstroke.

Freshman Max Gerke – a Regina student who plans to attend West next year – scored points for the Trojans in both the 200 freestyle and the 500.

Junior Nikolas Sung earned points in the 200 IM, while Skelley did the same in the 100 free and the 100 backstroke.

“A lot of them weren’t seeded to get any points coming in,” Butler said. “That is what it is all about. You get to this meet, you have the opportunity and you make the most out of it.”

The West High 200 freestyle relay team of Brotherton, Skelley, Christensen and Nichols narrowly missed a second relay title with a runner-up finish in the 200 free relay in 1:24.50.

With Nichols as the only state meet point-scorer lost to graduation, next year’s Trojans should be a load for any team to handle.

“We are really excited for next year,” Christensen said. “We think we can really dominate next year. … For all of us to come back next year and then add on the freshmen that are coming up next year and then all of us just getting better, it is going to be really exciting for us. We are really pumped to see what we can do next year.”

Boys State Swimming Meet

At Linn-Mar Aquatic Center

Teams – 1. Waukee 268.5, 2. Ankeny 238.5, 3. West High 208.5, 4. West Des Moines Valley 168.5, 5. Linn-Mar 155, 6. Bettendorf 131, 7. City High 120, 8. West Des Moines Dowling 108; 9. Pleasant Valley 103.5, 10. Sioux City Metro 98, 11. Ames 90, 12. Cedar Rapids Washington 82, 13. Johnston 80, 14. Davenport Central 64.5, 15. Dubuque Hempstead 45, 16. Carroll 31, 17. Decorah 30, 18. Ottumwa 25, 19. Muscatine 24, 20. Indianola 21, 21. Vinton-Shellsburg 17, 22. Marshalltown 16, 23. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 13, 24. Newton 9, 25. Spencer 8, 26. Mason City 7, 27. Des Moines Roosevelt 6, 28. Williamsburg 2.

200 medley relay – 1. West High (Boyd Skelley, Jordan Christensen, Holden Carter, Luke Nichols) 1:32.24; 2. Waukee 1:34.10; 3. Ames 1:34.63; 5. City High (Caleb Coons, Kento Yahashiri, Isaac Weigel, Bryce Edens) 1:36.20.

200 freestyle – 1. Trent Frandson (Ankeny) 1:36.46; 2. Cooper Callahan (Linn-Mar) 1:39.52; 3. AJ Abram (Waukee) 1:40.16; 12. Max Gerke (West High) 1:45.67; 19. Lukas Swanson (West High), 1:47.68.

200 IM – 1. Andrew Reiter (Waukee), 1:47.79; 2. Isaac Weigel (City High) 1:51.30; 3. Brek Stukerjurgen (Ankeny) 1:53.21; 6. Jordan Christensen (West High) 1:55.14; 12. Joe Polyak (City High) 1:59.22; 14. Nikolas Sung (West High) 1:59.49.

50 freestyle – 1. Alex Stone (Bettendorf) 20.67; 2. Ryan Boeding (Muscatine) 20.85; 3. Trevor Danner (Carroll) 21.02; 4. Kirk Brotherton (West High) 21.15; t7. Luke Nichols (West High) 21.45; 21. Bryce Edens (City High), 22.19; 30. Quinn Wubbena (West High) 22.62.

100 butterfly – 1. Andrew Reiter (Waukee) 48.68; 2. Lance Swanepoel (Ankeny) 49.34; 3. Kyle Hopewell (Davenport Central) 50.07; 8. Holden Carter (West High) 50.95; 19. Luke Nichols (West High) 52.67; 20. Caleb Coons (City High) 52.81.

100 freestyle – 1. Alex Stone (Bettendorf) 45.17; 2. Isaac Weigel (City High) 45.24; 3. AJ Abram (Waukee) 45.495; 5. Kirk Brotherton (West High) 46.54; 14. Boyd Skelley (West High) 47.44; 17. Bryce Edens (City High) 47.95.

500 freestyle – 1. Trent Frandson (Ankeny) 4:25.71; 2. Joey Hancock (West Des Moines Dowling) 4:30.40; 3. Cooper Callahan (Linn-Mar) 4:33.49; 11. Joe Polyak (City High) 4:47.11; 3. Max Gerke (West High) 4:47.71; 18. Andy Luo (West High) 4:51.23; 21. Lukas Swanson (West High) 4:53.11.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Ankeny 1:24.11; 2. West High (Kirk Brotherton, Boyd Skelley, Jordan Christensen, Luke Nichols) 1:24.50; 3. Waukee 1:24.51; 21. City High (Charlie Pfohl, John Weigel, Chase Loftus, Will Larsen) 1:32.23

100 backstroke – 1. Aiden Carstensen (Linn-Mar) 49.83; 2. Asher Havenhill (Waukee) 50.13; 3. Caleb Coons (City High) 50.40; 9. Boyd Skelley (West High) 52.25; 10. Holden Carter (West High) 52.61; 17. Andy Luo (West High) 54.25.

100 breaststroke – 1. Kohen Rankin (Sioux City Metro) 55.03; 2. Jordan Christensen (West High) 56.56; 3. Joshua Chen (Ames) 56.82; 2. Kento Yahashiri (City High) 1:01.11; 23. Nikolas Sung (West High) 1:02.79; 29. Chase Loftus (City High) 1:03.54.

400 freestyle relay – 1. Ankeny 3:04.22; 2. Bettendorf 3:06.80; 3. Waukee 3:08.16; 6. City High (Isaac Weigel, Caleb Coons, Joe Polyak, Bryce Edens) 3:09.91; 8. West High (Holden Carter, Max Gerke, Nikolas Sung, Kirk Brotherton) 3:11.43.

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