Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – When it comes to boys swimming in 2026, West High is indeed the best high.

At the state championships Saturday at the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, the Trojans won a pair of relays and received important points throughout the lineup to capture their first state title since 2020 and fourth overall.

“It means everything,” West High coach Byron Butler said. “It was the goal from the moment they finished last year’s state meet.”

With 224 team points, West High held off Linn-Mar (220) and denied the Lions their first boys swimming state championship.

A year ago, the Trojans finished second at the state meet.

After that season, West High coach Zach Armstrong stepped away to spend more time with his family.

There are not a lot of programs which would have a coach the caliber of Butler available to step in, but he was still around the program after his own run as West High head coach – which included the 2020 state title – ended in 2023.

“It has meant so much,” West senior Winston Fan said. “Having him back, we knew his coaching schedule would be perfect for us. It would get us in the right shape for state and we just needed those two weeks to taper and we came here and performed and that is what we did. We won. Thank you for Coach Butler.”

Fan wrapped up his prep career with a couple of strong individual performances – runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly in 49.25 seconds, plus third in the 100 breaststroke (55.28).

Fan swam the third leg of the 200 freestyle relay victory (1:35.19) and the butterfly portion of the rousing 200 medley relay win (1:31.14) that opened the state meet.

It was West High’s fifth medley relay title in the last six years.

“Our team, we can always put together four really good guys that can do all four strokes,” said West junior Ethan Landon, who swam the backstroke portion of the medley relay title. “One of my good friends who was a senior two years back, Max Gerke, said, ‘It is West High, Medley High.”

Landon also had strong individual performances by placing second in the backstroke (49.58) and fifth in the butterfly (50.31). Sending his senior teammates out with a state championship might just be Landon’s biggest source of pride.

“Oh, it’s so exciting,” Landon said. “These guys are my brothers. I work so hard for them, they work hard for me, we work hard for each other. I’m so happy they get to go out with a bang like this.”

Hudson Huberg placed sixth in both the 200 freestyle and the 100, while fellow senior Oliver Mikulski was fifth in the 50.

Both were on the 200 freestyle relay portion with Fan and sophomore Link Ortman, while Mikulski swam the freestyle portion of the medley relay win.

Sophomore Jack Tunwall swam the breaststroke portion and later earned individual points with an 11^th-place performance in the 100 breaststroke (59.49), while senior Nikolai Paulson also registered some individual points in the 200 individual medley.

“I knew we were going to have some really good top-end talent,” Butler said. “But I knew we needed a couple of guys to score that didn’t last year.”

After the meet, the West coaching staff was named “Coaching Staff of the Year,” while Cedar Rapids Washington’s Andrew Seifert – who won the 100 freestyle and the breaststroke – earned top honors as a swimmer.

Iowa City High placed 16^th as a team with 59 points, led by Philip Berry-Stoelze’s fifth-place finish in the 100 (45.26), plus Braydon Calonder’s eighth-place performance in the 50 (21.57).

State Swimming Meet

At University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation

Team scores – 1. West High 224; 2. Linn-Mar 220; 3. Waukee 175; 4. Waukee Northwest 162; 5. West Des Moines Valley 158; 6. Cedar Falls 143; 7. Dubuque Hempstead 137; 8. Cedar Rapids Washington 124; 9. West Des Moines Dowling 122; 10. Boone 94; 11. Carroll 89; 12. Newton 86; 13. Sioux City West 84; 14. Dubuque Senior 82; 15. Southeast Polk 63; 16. Iowa City High 59; 17. Ankeny 51; 18. Pleasant Valley 28; 19. Grinnell 27; 20. Lewis Central 16; 21. Decorah 11; 22. Ottumwa 7; 23. Spencer 5; 24. Mason City 3.

200 medley relay – 1. West High (Ethan Landon, Jack Tunwall, Winston Fan, Oliver Mikulski) 1:31.14; 2. Linn-Mar1:31.53; 3. Cedar Falls 1:32.49.

200 freestyle – 1. Teagen Renze (Carroll) 1:37.20; 2. Will Van Zee (West Des Moines Valley) 1:37.49; 3. Carson Hoak (Sioux City West) 1:39.21; 6. Hudson Huberg (West High) 1:39.98.

200 individual medley – 1. Parker Macho (Linn-Mar) 1:47.61; 2. Ben Susil (West Des Moines Dowling) 1:51.35; 3. Abd Ul-Haq (Dubuque Hempstead) 1:52.79; 15. Nikolai Paulson (West High) 2:01.96.

50 free – 1. Finn Martin (Newton) 20.06; 2. Isaac Clark (Boone) 20.63; 3. Sam Weaver (Cedar Falls) 20.79; 5. Oliver Mikulski (West High) 20.88; 8. Braydon Calonder (City High) 21.57.

100 butterfly – 1. Parker Macho (Linn-Mar) 46.58; 2. Winston Fan (West High) 49.25; 3. Bryer Pearson (Ankeny) 49.60; 5. Ethan Landon (West High) 50.31.

100 freestyle – 1. Andrew Seifert (Cedar Rapids Washington) 43.60; 2. Finn Martin (Newton) 43.69; 3. Teagen Renze (Carroll) 44.39; 5. Philip Berry-Stoelze (City High) 45.26; 6. Hudson Huberg (West High) 45.63; 15. Braydon Calonder (City High), 47.99.

500 freestyle – 1. Hayden Hakes (West High) 4:25.54; 2. Wesley Mooney (West Des Moines Dowling) 4:34.49; 3. Will Van Zee (West Des Moines Valley), 4:36.35.

200 free relay – 1. West High (Oliver Mikulski, Link Ortman, Winston Fan, Hudson Huberg) 1:24.23; 2. Dubuque Hempstead 1:25.19; 3. Cedar Falls 1:25.41; 13. City High (Philip Berry-Stoelze, Nik Polyak, Soren Kenlin, Braydon Calonder) 1:28.93.

100 backstroke – 1. Desmond Ortega (Southeast Polk) 48.87; 2. Ethan Landon (West High) 49.58; 3. Carson Hoak (Sioux City West) 50.19.

100 breaststroke – 1. Andrew Seifert (Cedar Rapids Washington) 53.40; 2. Sam Weaver (Cedar Falls) 54.84; 3. Winston Fan (West High) 55.28; 11. Jack Tunwall (West High) 59.49.

400 free relay – 1. Linn-Mar, 3:04.46; 2. Cedar Rapids Washington, 3:06.23; 3. West Des Moines Valley 3:06.96; 4. West High (Nikolai Paulson, Oliver Mikulski, Ethan Landon, Hudson Huberg) 3:07.58; 13. City High (Philip Berry-Stoelze, Nik Polyak, Soren Kenlin, Braydon Calonder) 3:16.87

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