Team effort lands Iowa City West in second place at MVC swimming meet

MARION — Heading into the final event of the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet on Saturday, Iowa City West and Dubuque Wahlert were tied at 272 points.

The only thing Iowa City West needed to do to claim second place was to beat its own conference-meet record in the 400 freestyle relay (3:37.61). Luckily for the Women of Troy, three of the four from last year's squad were back and helped power Iowa City West to a record-setting finish of 3:37.06.

'We've had this goal all season,' senior and co-MVC Athlete of the Year Alleyna Thomas said. 'Then we would just miss it by .10 seconds or something. It's really cool to get it this time.'

Freshman Aurora Roghair joined Thomas, Melanie Housenga and Lily Ernst on the record-setting relay team. Roghair was excited to be part of a relay team that has been in sync.

'It's great to be part of this team,' said Roghair. 'We all have the same goals and are really focused together.'

The win in the 400 freestyle gave Iowa City West the extra points it needed to claim second over Dubuque Wahlert. The Women of Troy finished with 312 points, while the Golden Eagles had 306 points in third place. Cedar Falls won with 387 points.

'Our coach told us that it was tied right before the event,' Housenga said. 'We just knew we had to get into it and we had to get ready. And it went just the way we wanted it to.'

In addition to the relay win, Iowa City West won two individual events. Roghair took the top spot in the 200 freestyle in 1:54.08 and Ernst claimed the title in the 100 butterfly in 58.34 seconds. Roghair (53.10) also finished second in the 100 freestyle, narrowly losing to Wahlert's Anna Pfeiffer (53.00).

'It was a success,' Thomas said. 'I'm really happy with how it turned out. We had a good meet last year and I think that helped play into our confidence this year.

'We knew it was going to be a really good meet and we had a really great mindset coming in to the event.'

Cedar Rapids Washington finished fourth with 286 points, behind a strong diving performance from Ayla Taylor, who won the event with 406.35 points. Washington's 200 medley relay team (Sydney Jones, Caitlin Sievers, Lauren Havertape, Elsie Novak) claimed second in 1:53.80. Lila Novak finished third in the 50 free in 25.23 seconds and Elsie Novak claimed second in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.32.

Mackinzee Macho helped Kennedy to a fifth-place finish with 184 points. Macho was undecided about swimming in her senior season. After taking a break from swimming for the first time in several years, Macho decided to compete for the Cougars.

'I decided that I just wanted to finish my senior season strong and go out with a bang,' Macho said. 'I definitely love how we all cheer each other on and get each other hyped up at these events.'