Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – A performance like the one that James Pinter produced on Saturday at the Little Hawk Invitational on Saturday should be good enough to earn a little bit of a break.

Pinter posted four top-three finishes and was a part of a pair of meet records while helping the Trojans claim the team title in front of a pair of top-three finishers from last year’s state meet.

Instead of a break following its final competition of 2019 Pinter and his West High teammates actually earned themselves more training time in the pool and they would have it any other way.

“We have two weeks of an academic break but that means more time to swim,” Pinter said. “It’s not really a break for us by any means, we ramp up our training a lot more and we work really hard in the weight room and in the pool but we love it. We are pretty excited for our championship season to start up especially after the results of our last meet.”

The holiday break for Iowa City schools began with dismissal on Friday.

By the time Pinter climbed out of the Mercer Park Aquatic Center pool on Saturday afternoon the West High senior was looking at two straight weeks of swimming.

“Without going to school its good to have that break to eat really good, sleep in a little, take a nap but really it’s just more time to swim,” Pinter said. “That’s kind of how we see it.”

Pinter enters the two-week training session coming off an impressive performance.

The senior turned in the second fastest time in the state this season at 1:44.22 in a runner-up finish in the 200 freestyle and was part of the West High 400 freestyle relay team that placed third.

Pinter set meet records in his other two events on Saturday.

He joined sophomore Jordan Christensen, freshman Diggory Dillingham and senior Izaak Hajek on the 200 medley relay team that broke the previous meet record by more than a second with a time of 1:35.62.

The previous record of 1:36.79 was set in 2014 by the star-studded West High team of Mark McGlaughlin, Matt Anderson, Oliver Martin and Aidan Keen.  

“We are training extremely hard right now and they are still just shocking me with they are making steady improvements,” West High coach Byron Butler said. “It’s a really good spot to be in right now.”

Pinter added his own individual meet record in the 100 backstroke, breaking a nearly ten-year old record set by Austin Abbas of Cedar Falls back in 2010 with a time of 51.73.

The winning time for Pinter was the second fastest in the state this season.

“It’s a good feeling especially since we have a really good history of backstrokers here in the last 10 years,” Pinter said. “It’s definitely a good benchmark and I’m happy with where I am and I know I am doing something right in training.”

Pinter posted a pair of individual runner-up finishes at the state meet last season in his first year at West High after moving to Iowa City from Wisconsin.

In his senior season Pinter has taken off.

“I was new last year and I really feel like I’ve found my groove with Byron and the rest of the team,” Pinter said. “I feel like I belong so it’s good to go to practice and having that feeling of acceptance. I feel like I’m able to focus more at practice.”

In addition to his backstroke and 200 freestyle times Pinter owns the fifth fastest time in the state this season in the 200 IM at 1:58.25.

According to Butler the progress Pinter has made this season starts in practice.

“The first day I always ask them who is your best coach and the sophomore through seniors always answer ‘I am,’,” Butler said. “There are 60 guys in the water some days and we can’t be looking at everybody and James is constantly thinking about what he can improve. When you pile that consistency on practice after practice after practice it shows up in these meets.”

Pinter will get plenty of opportunity to practice over the next two weeks.

He said he will stay out of the pool on Christmas day but will find something to do that day to workout. He plans to swim every other day over the break unless Butler has other plans.

“I think I can speak for the entire team when I say that I think we all kind of love it,” Pinter said. “We all come a little closer together since we are spending so much time together over the winter break. Pretty much every single day after practice we spend a little more time together and it’s a team bonding thing through that shared hardship.”

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by becoming a member.