Parker Macho powers Linn-Mar to district swim title

MARION — The stars did not align.

And both of them did not mind one bit.

Saturday's boys district swim meet at the Linn-Mar Aquatic Center featured two of the state's best in Linn-Mar's Parker Macho and Cedar Rapids Washington's Andrew Seifert.

In past years, the good friends and club training partners have gone up against each other at districts and state in individual events.

Not this year.

Macho and Seifert each won two individual events and can only compete against each other in relays. Macho will defend his state titles in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Seifert will be in search of his first state title after winning the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. He was named the district swimmer of the year by vote of the coaches.

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"It's going to be a really nice thing," Seifert said. "It will be nice to stand there and cheer for him instead of swimming against him. That will be a great thing to experience."

Macho echoed those sentiments.

"Training with Andrew every day is a blessing," he said. "He pushes me every day when we train at Coe. Hopefully, it is going to be a great day for both of us next Saturday."

It was a pretty great day for them at the district meet.

Macho won the 200 IM in 1:49.60 and the 100 butterfly in 47.84. Seifert took the 100 freestyle in 43.99 and the 100 breaststroke in 53.25.

"I'm pretty happy with the way things went today," Parker Macho said. "I have some things to work on for next week, but after being sick during districts last year, this was a much better day for sure/"

The team race was dominated by Linn-Mar. Along with Macho's two wins, the Lions won all three relays and got a win from Macho's younger brother, Maxwell, in the 100 backstroke (50.74) to finish with 458 points. Washington, which also got a pair of wins from senior Petter Wittnebel in the 200 and 500 freestyle, took second with 404 points. Pleasant Valley was a distant third with 285.

First-year Linn-Mar head coach George Durin said his team hit all of its marks on Saturday.

"We had a lot of high expectations coming into this meet," he said. "The boys executed exactly how we planned. I think we will end up with nine swimmers going to the state meet and that is pretty strong in my opinion.

Durin and his staff were named the district coaching staff of the year.

Linn-Mar is ranked No. 3 and will be a contender for a state title next week.

"We'll be ready," Durin said. "Linn-Mar is going to make some noise next week."

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IHSAA District Meet

At Linn-Mar Aquatic Center

Team Scoring: 1. Linn-Mar 458, 2. CR Washington 404, 3. Pleasant Valley 285, 4. IC High 2055, 5. CR Jefferson 175, 6. CR Kennedy 142.5, 7. Burlington 115, 8. Williamsburg 108.5, 9. Vinton-Shellsburg 73.

200-yard medley relay: 1. Linn-Mar (Maxwell Macho, Parker Macho, Carter Byers, Clayton Treharne) 1:32.72, 2. CR Washington (Gavin Lucas, Andrew Seifert, Remy Barton, Harry O'Donnell) 1:36.14, 3. Pleasant Valley (Brendan Dougherty, Carter Hatz, Carter Goebel, Isaiah Eliasen) 1:40.61

200 freestyle: 1. Peter Wittnebel (CRW) 1:39.80, 2. Rylee Sieren (LM) 1:41.71. 3. Philip Berry-Stoelze (ICH) 1:44.61.

200 individual medley: 1. Parker Macho (LM) 1:49.60, 2. Clayton Treharne (LM) 1:56.37, 3. Ethan Levisay (CRW) 2:06.37.

50 para freestyle: 1. Nash Gehrls (CRK) 28.13

50 freestyle: 1. Kaiden Bonner (PV) 21.51, 2. Maxwell Macho (LM) 21.55, 3. Braydon Calonder (ICH) 21.82.

100 butterfly: 1. Parker Macho (LM) 47.84, 2. Carter Byers (LM) 50.95, 3. Carter Goebel (PV) 54.48.

100 freestyle: 1. Andrew Seifert (CRW) 43.99, 2. Philip Berry-Stoelze (ICH) 46.86, 3. Kaiden Bonner (PV) 47.39.

500 freestyle: 1. Peter Wittnebel (CRW) 4:40.62, 2. Rylee Sieren (LM) 4:44.16, 3. Peyton Adair (LM) 4:50.62.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Linn-Mar (Clayton Treharne, Carter Byers, Peyton Adair, Rylee Sieren) 1:27.60, 2. CR Washington (Gavin Lucas, Anthony Trotta, Harry O'Donnell, Peter Wittnebel) 1:29.60, 3. Pleasant Valley (Carter Hatz, Carter Goebel, Isaiah Eliasen, Kaiden Bonner) 1:29.77.

100 para backstroke: 1. Nash Gehrls (CRK) 1:13.23

100 backstroke: 1. Maxwell Macho (LM) 50.74, 2. Clayton Treharne (LM) 51.34, 3. Brody Lamos (CRK) 54.02.

100 breaststroke: 1. Andrew Seifert (CRW) 53.25, 2. Carter Hatz (PV) 58.99, 3. Todd Barker (CRW) 1:01.89

400 freestyle relay: 1. Linn-Mar (Parker Macho, Tylee Sieren, Carter Byers, Maxwell Macho) 3:06.91, 2. CR Washington (Anthony Trotta, Joseph Dake, Peter Wittnebel, Andrew Seifert) 3:11.52, 3. Pleasant Valley (Kaiden Bonner, Carter Goebel, Isaiah Eliasen, Carter Hatz) 3:17.05

District Swimmer of the Year: Andrew Seifert, CR Washington

District Coaching Staff of the Year: Head Coach George Durin and staff, Linn-Mar