Waukee, Iowa City West lead showcase of Iowa swimming in 2022 boys’ state meet

IOWA CITY — Iowa City West’s Kirk Brotherton placed it in proper perspective.

“I just love (state of) Iowa swimming,” he said. “This is the day we all wait for and we all wanted to swim our best and we all did that.”

Saturday’s IHSAA state meet was a celebration of all the boys’ swimming talent in the state. Swimmers from several teams dropped their times by significant margins, which led to some fantastic races at University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center pool.

West got a great anchor leg from Brotherton to set a state record in the meet’s opening event, the 200-yard medley relay. That victory, in 1:30.87, propelled the Trojans to a second-place finish. Waukee won five of 11 events, running away with the team title. Waukee finished with 293.5 points. West was second with 232 while West Des Moines Valley was third with 208.5.

Linn-Mar, paced by runner-up finishes from seniors Cooper Callahan in the 500 freestyle and Aiden Carstensen in the 100 backstroke, finished fourth with 194 points, the best finish in school history.

Brotherton led the Trojan charge throughout the meet. He added runner-up finishes in 50 and 100 freestyles and was on the 200 free relay that just got edged by Bettendorf (1:23.09 to 1:23.22) for top honors.

“We work hard, we swim hard, then we rest hard,” said West Coach Byron Butler of his team. “They are very coachable and they are just awesome kids.”

Butler’s influence on West’s success can’t be underestimated, according to Brotherton.

“Byron does so many things for us as swimmers,” he said. “He tells us what to do and we just really believe in him.”

The Trojans won the team title in 2020 and finished third last year. They always seem to have a swimmer or two come up big at state. Senior Max Gerke provided crucial points with his performances in the 500 free and the 400 free relay.

“Those kinds of things get me emotional,” Butler said. “We have a great group of seniors on this team and they were outstanding today. Max had some great swims.”

The race of the meet turned out to be the 100 freestyle, won by Waukee’s A.J. Abram, where the top four finishers earned automatic All-America honors and the next two finishers got consolation All-America consideration.

“That’s just crazy to think about how good that race was,” Linn-Mar Coach Tom Belin said. “That shows just how many good swimmers there are in this state.”

A few of those swimmers belong to Belin’s Lions. Callahan and Carstensen had hopes of winning gold medals, but came up short despite putting up their best numbers of the year.

“I’m so proud of them and all our swimmers today,” Belin said. “They are great competitors and they want to win, but they went out and did what they could do. They lowered their times and competed very well.

“They are disappointed for sure,” continued the Linn-Mar coach. “Once they get a chance to look back and see just how well they did perform, they will have a better perspective on what they did here today.”

Waukee’s Abram, who won both the 100 and 200 freestyles and was on the team’s winning 400 relay, shared swimmer of the meet honors with Sioux City Metro’s Kohen Rankin, a double winner in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

Iowa high school boys’ state swimming 2022 results

At UI CRWC Pool, Iowa City

Final Team Scoring: 1. Waukee 293.5, 2. IC West 232, 3. WDM Valley 208.5, 4. Linn-Mar 194, 5. Bettendorf 190, 6. Pleasant Valley 134, 7. Ankeny 197.5, 8. Ames 117.5, 9. SC Metro 103, 10. WDM Dowling 100, 11. Dub. Hempstead 89, 12. Johnston 82, 13. Dav. Central 71, 14. IC High 64, 15 Indianola 27, 16. Spencer 23, 17. CR Kennedy 21, 18. Marshalltown 19.5, 19. Cedar Falls, 20. CR Washington 14, 21. Vinton-Shellsburg 12, 22. Williamsburg 9, 23, Burlington 8, 24. Decorah 5, 25 (tie) Grinnell, CB Lewis Central, Dub. Senior 4, 28. CR Jefferson 2.

(Top 3 plus Gazette-area swimmers)

200-yard medley relay: 1. Iowa City West (Boyd Skelley, Jordan Christensen, Holden Carter, Kirk Brotherton) 1:30.87; 2. Waukee (Asher Havenhill, Levi Manning, Andrew Reiter, Cooper Rogers) 1:32.12; 3. Linn-Mar (Aiden Carstensen, Blake Behrens, Ian Steffen, Ryan Horsey) 1:33.34; 10. Iowa City High (John Weigel, Kento Yahashiri, Joe Polyak, Will Larson) 1:36.81; 15. CR Washington (Seth Williams, Brian Foerster, Ian McGrath, Ryan McCaffrey) 1:40.69; 16. Vinton-Shellsburg (Bradyn Schlief, Carter Kirtz, Ian Allsup, Logan Zearley) 1:41.51; 17. CR Kennedy (Mason Turner, AJ Miller, Spencer Kramer, Jesse Gunter) 1:41.71; 18. Williamsburg (Braxton McGrath, Jack Colvin, Jaxon Strank, Hunter Kauffman) 1:42.13; 22. CR Jefferson (Carter Prull, Camden Meiners, Tate Kuennen, Parker Gammill) 1:43.24.

200 freestyle: 1. AJ Abram (Waukee) 1:36.13, 2. Alex Stone (Bett) 1:37.02, 3. Cooper Callahan (LM) 1:38.41, 9. Max Gerke (ICW) 1:42.82; 17. Damon Conzemius (ICW) 1:46.36, 21. Drew Chamberlain (Dec.) 1:46.98, 22. Luke Kelley (LM) 1:47.12, 23. Lukas Swanson (ICW) 1:47.43, 28. Connor Schaffel (LM) 1:48.12, 29. Anthony Lee (CRJ) 1:48.26.

200 IM: 1. Andrew Reiter (Waukee) 1:48.57, 2. Tony Hancock (WDM Dowling) 1:52.43, 3. Joshua Chen (Ames) 1:53.01; 4. Joe Polyak (ICH) 1:53.12, 7. Jordan Christensen (ICW) 1:55.28, 11. Mason Turner (CRK) 1:55.93, 19. Blake Behrens (LM) 1:59.66, 21. Nikolas Sung (ICW) 2:00.23, 24. Carter Kirtz (VS) 2:01.08, 30 Ian Lucas (CRW) 2:02.79

50 freestyle: 1. Kohen Rankin (SC Metro) 20.22, 2. Kirk Brotherton (ICW) 20.56, 3. Aiden Carstensen (LM) 20.87, 13. Grady Wheeler (CRW) 22.06, 18. Spencer Kramer (CRK) 21.90. 19. Ryan Horsey (LM) 21.91, 20. Christian Janis (ICW) 21.99, 21. Will Larson (ICH) 22.00, 24. Barrett Coffey (ICW) 22.22, 26. Ian Allsup (VS) 22.29, 28. Ryan McCaffrey (CRW) 22.59

100 butterfly: 1. Lance Swanepoel (Ankeny) 48.22, 2. Carter Anderson (Bett) 48.88, 3. Kyle Hopewell (D.Central) 48.99, 5. Holden Carter (ICW) 50.12, 9. Braxton McGrath (Wburg) 51.42, 16. Andy Luo (ICW) 53.51, 18. Jaxon Strank (Wburg) 53.12, 26. Seth Williams (CRW) 54.72, 27. Ian McGrath (CRW) 54.85, 32. Tate Kuennen (CRJ) 56.56.

Para 100 freestyle: 1. Isaiah Picard (Indianola) 1:46.87

100 freestyle: 1. AJ Abram (Waukee) 44.60, 2. Kirk Brotherton (ICW) 44.69, 3. George Holesing (Dub Sen) 44.87, 6. Ian Steffen (LM) 45.39, 7. Boyd Skelley (ICW) 47.32, 10. John Weigel (ICH) 47.44, 18. Ian Lucas (CRW) 48.60, 22. Grady Wheeler (CRW) 48.96, 30. Ryan Horsey (LM) 49.78.

500 freestyle: 1. Jacob Pins (WDM Valley) 4:26.30, 2. Cooper Callahan (LM) 4:31.87, 3. James Coffey (Wauk) 4:36.78, 4. Mason Turner (CRK) 4:37.21, 6. Max Gerke (ICW) 4:40.11, 8. Luke Kelley (LM) 4:49.55, 12. Connor Schaffel (LM) 4:48.25, 13. Lukas Swanson (ICW) 4:48.38, 27. Anthony Lee (CRJ) 4:58.36

200 freestyle relay: 1. Bettendorf (Max Wetteland, Carter Anderson, Noah Mitvalsky, Alex Stone) 1:23.09, 2. Iowa City West (Kirk Brotherton, Damon Conzemius, Max Gerke, Boyd Skelley) 1:23.22, 3. Waukee (Asher Havenhill, Cooper Rogers, Sam Davey, AJ Abram) 1:23.39, 9. Linn-Mar (Ryan Horsey, Blake Behrens, Colin Taylor, Cooper Callahan) 1:26.78, 14. Iowa City High (Joe Polyak, Chase Loftus, Will Larson, John Weigel) 1:28.19, 18. CR Washington (Grady Wheeler, Jack Dake, Ryan McCaffrey, Ian Lucas) 1:30.05, 22. CR Jefferson (Carter Prull, Parker Gammill, Tate Kuennen, Anthony Lee) 1:31.91.

100 backstroke: 1. Asher Havenhill (Waukee) 48.85, 2. Aiden Carstensen (LM) 49.48, 3. Ian Steffen (LM) 50.17, 8. Holden Carter (IC) 51.94, 12. Drew Chamberlain (Dec.) 52.56, 15. Boyd Skelley (ICW) 53.30, 17. John Weigel (ICH) 53.83, 21. Braxton McGrath (Wburg) 54.28, 29. Andy Luo (ICW) 56.77, 32. Jesse Gunter (CRK) 57.74

Para 100 breaststroke: 1. Isaiah Picard (Indianola) 2:33.75

100 breaststroke: 1. Kohen Ranken (SC Metro) 53.19, 2. Joshua Chen (Ames) 54.65, 3. Jordan Christensen (ICW) 55.66, 6. Joe Polyak (ICH) 57.72, 8. Carter Kirtz (VS) 58.75, 9. Kento Yahashiri (ICH) 59.36, 16. Blake Behrens (LM) 1:01.17 19. Brian Foerster (CRW) 1:00.70, 27. Nikolas Sung (ICW) 1:01.89, 32. Chase Loftus (ICH) 1:03.10

400 freestyle relay: 1. Waukee (AJ Abram, Cooper Rogers, Sam Davey, Andrew Reiter) 3:03.91, 2. Bettendorf (Max Wetteland, Carter Anderson, Noah Mitvalsky, Alex Stone) 3:04.00, 3. Linn-Mar (Cooper Callahan, Ian Steffen, Luke Kelley, Aiden Carstensen) 3:04.11, 4. Iowa City West (Max Gerke, Holden Carter, Jordan Christensen, Damon Conzemius) 3:08.21, 14. CR Washington (Ian Lucas, Josiah Wickham, Ian McGrath, Grady Wheeler) 3:20.03, 16.CR Jefferson (Carter Prull, Sheppard West, Tate Kuennen, Anthony Lee) 3:21.41, 18. CR Kennedy (Will Bowden, Jesse Gunter, Mason Turner, Spencer Kramer) 3:21.50, Iowa City High (Will Larson, Chase Loftus, Charlie Pfohl, John Weigel) DQ.