Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Joe Polyak had high expectations for his senior season of prep swimming.

The Regina student and member of the City High swim team already owned the state title in the 200-yard individual medley but what eluded him by an excruciating two-hundredths of a second as a junior seemed more than attainable this year.

The 100 breaststroke crown.

“I was really happy with my 100 breast last year, too,” Polyak said. “I thought that was a really good time, but obviously I know I can improve every year.”

Improve he did.

Polyak posted a personal-record time of 53.42 seconds – more than two full seconds better than his runner-up time from a year ago – and claimed the coveted breaststroke title at the boys swimming state championships Saturday at the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.

“To be able to (improve) that much, two seconds in the 100 (breast), is pretty good,” Polyak said. “I’m very happy with that.”

Polyak’s breaststroke time was also more than two seconds better than this year’s runner-up, Waukee’s Klein Brock.

Only two individual events were won in more dominant fashion on Saturday: West Des Moines Valley’s Jacob Pins’ victory in the 500 freestyle by five-plus seconds and Polyak again.

Earlier in the meet, Polyak repeated as the 200 IM state champion with a blazing time of 1:46.35, more than five seconds faster than Valley’s Dylan Nelson.

“I swam pretty hard,” Polyak said. “I was really going for the state record there. Just missed it. That was really disappointing, but to be able to bounce back in the 100 breast with a huge PR that I did and I had huge swims in the relays, helped my team out there. I was proud.”

Polyak exits the City High swim program with three career individual state championships.

In addition, his leadoff legs in both the 200 free relay – 50 yards in 20.35 seconds – and 400 free relay – 100 yards in 44.96 seconds – on Saturday were faster than City High’s 50 free and 100 free school records.

“He’s such a good kid,” City High Coach Mandi Kowal said. “It’s going to be hard to not have him there just because he’s good to be around, fun to be around, he’s fun to talk about swimming.”

Polyak will continue his pursuit of Olympic Trials qualifying standards into the summer with his Iowa Flyers club team before heading off to college in the fall.

Polyak has signed to swim collegiately at the University of Minnesota.

“On my visit, I just loved their program,” Polyak said. “Their tradition. Their longevity and they have a lot of success bringing people to national titles. Lots of NCAA swimmers. The academics on the team were also a major point for me. I value a team with very high academic standards and they seem to be very disciplined in that area.”

State Swimming Meet

At University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City

Team scores – 1. West Des Moines Valley 235; 2. Waukee 219.50; 3. Linn-Mar 187.5; 4. Pleasant Valley 181; 5. West High 168; 6. Ames 152; 7. Bettendorf 131; 8. Cedar Falls 128; 9. Ankeny 113; 10. West Des Moines Dowling 90; 11. Cedar Rapids Washington 87.5; 12. City High 64; 13. Sioux City West 61; 14. Dubuque Hempstead 59; 15. Carroll 54.5; 16. Newton 37;  17. Boone 36; 18. Dubuque Senior 34.5; 19. Southeast Polk 33; 20. Keokuk 24; 21. Ottumwa 19; 22. Burlington 17; 23. Davenport Central 14; 24. Davenport West 12; 25. Johnston 8; 26. Decorah 2; 27. Centerville 1; 27. Muscatine 1.

200 medley relay – 1. West High (Hayden Hakes, Winston Fan, Holden Carter, Max Gerke) 1:30.31; 2. West Des Moines Valley 1:31.96; 3. Waukee 1:32.20; 20. City High (Lars Hackathorn, Drew Brown, Grant Bumsted, Charlie Pfohl), 1:42.12.

200 freestyle – 1. Jacob Pins (West Des Moines Valley) 1:37.78; 2. John Butler (Cedar Falls) 1:38.48; 3. Will Gorman (Pleasant Valley) 1:39.10; 32. Braydon Calonder (City High), 1:50.69.

200 individual medley – 1. Joe Polyak (City High) 1:46.35; 2. Dylan Nelson (West Des Moines Valley) 1:51.61; 3. Ian McCorkle (Ames) 1:52.85; 11. Winston Fan (West High) 1:55.27; 19. Philip Berry-Stoelzle (City High) 2:01.15.

50 freestyle – 1. Finn Martin (Newton) 20.31; 2. Nick Rounds (West Des Moines Dowling) 20.35; 3. Hudson Huberg (Linn-Mar) 20.79; 4. Max Gerke (West High) 20.92.

100 butterfly – 1. Holden Carter (West High) 48.57; 2. Parker Macho (Linn-Mar) 49.17; 3. Dylan Alt (Waukee) 49.54; 5. Max Gerke (West High) 49.94

100 freestyle – 1. Owen Chiles (Pleasant Valley) 43.42; 2. Finn Martin (Newton) 44.94; 3. John Butler (Cedar Falls) 45.45; 28. Philip Berry-Stoelzle (City High) 49.16.

500 free – 1. Jacob Pins (West Des Moines Valley) 4:20.86; 2. Hayden Hakes (West High) 4:28.63; 3. Josh Fisher (Ames) 4:33.69.

200 freestyle relay – 1. Pleasant Valley 1:22.95; 2. Dubuque Hempstead 1:24.87; 3. Bettendorf 1:25.04; 12. City High (Joe Polyak, Braydon Calonder, Grant Bumsted, Charlie Pfohl) 1:27.31

100 backstroke – 1. Owen Chiles (Pleasant Valley) 47.64; 2. Nick Rounds (West Des Moines Dowling) 48.71; 3. Dylan Nelson (West Des Moines Valley) 49.51; 4. Holden Carter (West High) 50.55; 28. Oliver Mikulski (West High) 55.30.

100 breaststroke – 1. Joe Polyak (City High) 53.42; 2. Klein Brock (Waukee) 55.62; 3. Kiefer Roemer (Bettendorf) 55.93; 10. Winston Fan (West High) 57.35; 20. Brennen Westphal (West High) 1:00.53.

400 free relay – 1. Pleasant Valley 3:03.06; 2. West High (Max Gerke, Hayden Hakes, Holden Carter, Winston Fan) 3:06.79; 3. Ames 3:08.14; 10. City High (Philip Berry-Stoelzle, Charlie Pfohl, Braydon Calonder, Joe Polyak) 3:11.51.

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