Iowa City High duo captures boys’ state swimming titles

IOWA CITY — Joe Polyak said he was "surprised."

Polyak's Iowa City High teammate, John Weigel, said he was concerned about how many fast swimmers there were in his races.

When the day was over, both Little Hawks proved to be the fastest in their specialties in the boys’ state swimming meet Saturday at Iowa Campus and Recreation Center pool.

In the 200-yard individual medley final, Polyak took control early, then finished strong on the freestyle leg to capture his first state title, touching in 1:48.94, easily outdistancing Waukee's Asher Havenhill 1:50.02.

Then in the 100 freestyle, Weigel finished fast in the final 25 of the 100 freestyle to edge Waukee's AJ Abram to win a state title in his final prep meet. Weigel touched in 45.19, just ahead of Abrams’ 45.34.

Waukee defended its state team title with 314 points, easily outdistancing West Des Moines Valley (214) and Ames (176). Linn-Mar was the top area finisher, taking sixth with 158 1/2 points, just a half-point behind Pleasant Valley for fifth and 1 1/2 points behind Ankeny for fourth.

Even though he entered the state meet as the No. 2 seed in the 200-yard individual medley and posted the top qualifying time in Friday night's preliminaries, Polyak said he didn't have any big expectations coming into Saturday's final.

“Honestly, (Friday) night was a little rough,” Polyak, a junior, said. “I ended up with a good time and it gave me some confidence coming into (Saturday).”

Polyak just missed becoming a double winner. He was edged by Ames' Joshua Chen in the 100 breaststroke final. Chen touched in 55.42, Polyak in 55.44.

Weigel was 10th in the 100 freestyle at last year's state meet, but he dedicated himself to improvement on several levels, both in and out of the pool and it paid off with a state title. Weigel also tied for third in the 50 free with Linn-Mar's Hudson Huberg.

“It is really sort of surreal,” said Weigel, the last of three in his family to swim for the Little Hawks. “I was really pleased with my race today.”

Little Hawks Coach Mandi Kowal took a calculated gamble with her two top swimmers and it ended up working.

“I pushed them pretty hard for four days about two weeks out,” she said. “It really paid off for them today. I'm just so happy for both of them. They put in the work and the results showed.”

Polyak thanked Kowal for her belief in him.

“She really pushed me to be better,” he said. “She had a great plan for me and I just believed in it and kept following the path.”

Weigel laughed when asked if he would have bragging rights over older siblings Carly and Isaac, both of who were state qualifiers, but never won a state title.

“Maybe a little,” he said. “I learned a lot from them that I'm sure helped today.”

Linn-Mar got a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay, a third in the 200 free relay and a pair of thirds from freshman Huberg, who also took the bronze in the 100 freestyle.

Iowa City West's Holden Carter took second in the 100 butterfly.

2023 Iowa high school boys’ state swimming meet

At UI Campus and Recreation Center Pool

Final Team scoring: 1. Waukee 304, 2. West Des Moines Valley 214, 3. Ames 176, 4. Ankeny 160, 5. Pleasant Valley 159, 6. Linn-Mar 158.5, 7. Bettendorf 150.5, 8. Iowa City West 136, 9.Cedar Falls 127, 10. Iowa City High 126.5, 11. Cedar Rapids Washington 79, 12. West Des Moines Dowling 65, 13. Sioux City Metro 61, 14. Dubuque Hempstead 49, 15. Johnston 39, 16. Spencer 29, 17. Newton 19, 18, Keokuk 16, 19. Dubuque Senior 14, 20. Council Bluffs Lewis Central 13, 21. Fort Dodge 12.5, 22. Burlington 12, 23. Ottumwa 8, 24. (tie) Decorah, Southeast Polk 7, 26 (tie) Marshalltown, Centerville 6, 28. Carroll 5, 29. Vinton-Shellsburg 3.

Top 3 and Gazette-area finishers

200-yard medley relay: 1. Ames (Evan Feilmeyer, Joshua Chen, Ian McCorkle, Tristan Day) 1:33.24, 2. Linn-Mar (Parker Macho, Blake Behrens, Colin Taylor, Hudson Huberg) 1:33.85, 3. Waukee 1:35.49, 7. Cedar Rapids Washington (Caio Carvalho, Brian Foerster, Ian Lucas, Marcus Seifert) 1:36.14 17. Decorah (Isaac Knaack, Mason Cote, Simon Kutz, Dylan Hogan) 1:41.94, 20. Vinton-Shellsburg (Wes Farrell, Ian Vrba, Ian Allsup, James DeSmet) 1:42.74, 23. Iowa City High (Grayson Wills, Kento Yahashiri, James Kardos, Braylon Calonder) 1:44.39; Iowa City West (Holden Carter, Winston Fan, Ian Caballero, Christian Janis) DQ

200 para freestyle: 1. Nathanaiel Crow (W'burg) 4:12.51.

200 freestyle: 1. Jacob Pins (WDM Valley) 1:37.52, 2. AJ Abram (Waukee) 1:38.05, 3. John Butler (CF) 1:40.79, 7. Lukas Swanson (ICW) 1:44.69, 8. Max Gerke (ICW) 1:45.81, 29. Owen Sieren (LM) 1:49.98, 30. Sheppard West (CRJ) 1:50.02

200 individual medley: 1. Joe Polyak (ICH) 1:48.94, 2. Asher Havenhill (Waukee) 1:50.02, 3. Owen Chiles (PV) 1:50.51, 8. Blake Behrens (LM) 1:56.48, 14. Winston Fan (ICW) 1:57.91, 29. Brian Forester (CRW) 2:05.12

50 para freestyle: 1. Isaiah Picard (Indianola) 43.48, 2. Nathanaiel Crow (W'burg) 51.81.

50 freestyle: 1. Lance Swanepoel (Ankeny) 20.10, 2. Nick Rounds (WDM Dowling) 20.73, 3. (tie) Hudson Huberg (LM) and John Weigel (ICH) 20.79, 8. Marcus Seifert (CRW) 21.63, 13. Ian Lucas (CRW) 21.80, 14. Ryan Horsey (LM) 21.89, 16. Ian Caballero (ICW) 21.94, 17. Christian Janis (ICW) 22.04

100 butterfly: 1.Lance Swanepoel (Ankeny) 47.10, 2. Holden Carter (ICW) 48.66, 3. Will Gorman (PV) 49.61, 5. Parker Macho (LM) 50.68, 13. Caio Carvalho (CRW) 52.45, 25. Seth Williams (CRW) 54.49

100 para freestyle: 1. Isaiah Picard (Indianola) 1:45.78.

100 freestyle: 1. John Weigel (ICH) 45.19, 2. AJ Abram (Waukee) 45.34, 3. Hudson Huberg (LM) 46.19, 8. Ian Lucas (CRW) 47.39, 15. Ian Allsup (V-S) 48.56, 21. Ryan Horsey (LM) 48.52, 25. Isaac Knaack (Dec.) 49.11, 26. Colin Taylor (LM) 49.40, 29. Ian Caballero (ICW) 49.78, 32. Josiah Wickum (CRW) 50.16.

500 freestyle: 1. Jacob Pins (WDM Valley) 4:25.34, 2. Will Gorman (PV) 4:33.58, 3. James Coffey (Waukee) 4:36.58, 6. Lukas Swanson (ICW) 4:46.94, 8. Max Gerke (ICW) 4:53.84, 17. Andrew Seifert (CRW) 4:52.32, 27. Sheppard West (CRJ) 4:57.35, 29. Owen Sieren (LM) 4:59.15, 31. Will Bowden (CRK) 5:00.35.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Waukee (Asher Havenhill, Cooper Rogers, Sam Davey, AJ Abram) 1:23.17, 2. Ankeny 1:24.93, 3. Linn-Mar (Blake Behrens, Ryan Horsey, Colin Taylor, Hudson Huberg) 1:24.96, 5. Iowa City High (Joe Polyak, Kento Yahashiri, Charlie Pfohl, John Weigel) 1:26.59, 7. Iowa City West (Ian Caballero, Christian Janis, Lukas Swanson, Max Gerke) 1:26.77, 13. (tie) Cedar Rapids Washington (Jack Schimberg, Josiah Wickum, Andrew Seifert, Marcus Seifert) 1:29.68, Decorah (Isaac Knaack, Quinn Baumann, John Starrett, Simon Kutz) 1:29.68, 19. Cedar Rapids Jefferson (Sheppard West, Kurtis Petersen, Kiefer Askam, Parker Gammill) 1:31.12, Vinton-Shellsburg (Ian Allsup, James DeSmet, Braden Beck, Ian Vrba), DQ

100 backstroke: 1. Asher Havenhill (Waukee) 49.20, 2. Owen Chiles (PV) 49.44, 2. Nick Rounds (WDM Dowling) 49.56, 5. Holden Carter (ICW) 49.92, 8. Caio Carvalho (CRW) 52.39, 11. Parker Macho (LM) 52.27, 16. Ian Allsup (V-S) 55.75, 24. Gavin Lucas (CRW) 54.47, 28. Seth Williams (CRW) 56.22.

100 breaststroke: 1. Joshua Chen (Ames) 55.42, 2. Joe Polyak (ICH) 55.44, 3. Klein Brock (Waukee) 56.19, 4. Blake Behrens (LM) 57.71, 8. Winston Fan (ICW) 59.22, 10. Brian Forester (CRW) 59.52, 15. Kento Yahashiri (ICH) 1:00.13, 22. Jack Colvin (W'burg) 1:01.04, 29. Brennen Westphal (ICW) 1:02.23

400 freestyle relay: 1. Waukee (AJ Abram, James Coffey, Cooper Rogers, Sam Davey) 3:05.75, 2. Ankeny 2:06.34, 3, Pleasant Valley 3:07.27, 7. Iowa City High (Phillip Berry-Stoelze, Joe Polyak, John Weigel, Charlie Pfohl) 3:11.19, 9. Iowa City West (Lukas Swanson, Max Gerke, Holden Carter, Winston Fan) 3:12.40, 11. Linn-Mar (Ryan Horsey, Owen Sieren, Parker Macho, Colin Taylor) 3:15.54, 13. Cedar Rapids Washington (Marcus Seifert, Josiah Wickum, Caio Carvalho, Ian Lucas) 3:16.20, 17. Cedar Rapids Jefferson (Sheppard West, Kurtis Petersen, Kiefer Askam, Parker Gammill) 3:21.06, 18. Decorah (Isaac Knaack, Dom Bigalk, Mason Cote, Simon Kutz) 3:21.26.