Thursday’s CIML Central Conference boys’ swimming meet at Trail Point Aquatics Center was switched to a junior varsity meet after being postponed from Saturday due to bad weather.
With the district meets coming up in nine days, all four of the league’s coaches agreed with the move in order to allow their varsity swimmers to focus on their training.
Ankeny placed fourth at the conference meet with 288 points. Johnston won the meet with 441 points, followed by Dowling Catholic with 405 and Ames with 386.
It was an “amazing conference meet tonight,” Ankeny coach Justin Crouch tweeted afterwards. “Congrats to all the JV boys who had fantastic swims and a great season!”
The Hawks’ lone victory came in the 50 freestyle, where Payton Griffin won the race in 23.32 seconds. He edged runner-up Drew Storey of Johnston by .13 seconds.
Griffin also anchored Ankeny to a runner-up finish in the 200 freestyle relay by swimming the final leg in 23.18. He teamed up with Hudson Griffin, Charlie Pritchard and Keegan Smith to post a time of 1:37.71.
The Hawks got a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke from Andrew Poock, who was clocked in 1:09.53. Teammate Nathan Neppl was third in the same event in 1:09.73.
Ankeny, the state’s No. 1 team, will compete in a district meet at Southeast Polk on Feb. 2. The state meet is slated for Feb. 9 at Iowa City.