Saturday’s Little Hawk Invitational at Iowa City featured many of the state’s top swimmers.
Four meet records were set at the Mercer Park Aquatic Center, three of them by top-ranked Iowa City West. The Trojans won the meet with 426 points.
No. 2 Ankeny placed second in the eight-team field with 358 points. No. 5 Bettendorf was third with 291.
Trent Frandson enjoyed a huge day for the Hawks. He swept the distance events and also swam on two winning relays.
Frandson won the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:43.49. He defeated Iowa City West standout James Pinter, who later set a meet record in the 100 backstroke, by .73 seconds.
Frandson then captured the 500 freestyle in 4:51.17.
“I was happy with my times,” said Frandson. “My main goal was to win the event. Especially in the 500, I saved myself so I could have more left in the tank for the relays.”
Ankeny then won the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:27.97, edging Bettendorf by .27 seconds. Frandson teamed up with Max Martin and the Swanepoel brothers, Jae and Lance, in the relay.
Frandson outdueled Bettendorf star Charlie Bunn on the anchor leg, swimming the final 50 yards in 20.99 to Bunn’s split of 21.12. Bunn had earlier won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events.
“I was not very confident that I could hold off Charlie, but we are good friends and it was fun to race against him,” Frandson said. “I was just happy I got the hand in there first.”
The two swimmers tangled again in the 400 freestyle relay, although they swam different legs. Frandson swam the leadoff leg in 45.92 seconds to ignite the Hawks to the victory in 3:13.70.
“I was most happy with the leadoff of the 400 free,” Frandson said. “That was a good swim for me!”
The Swanepoels swam the next two legs for Ankeny before Brek Stukerjurgen swam the anchor leg. The Hawks built a commanding lead before Bunn swam the anchor leg in 45.95, allowing Bettendorf to place second in 3:15.40.
Iowa City West’s Izaak Hajek set a meet record in the 100 butterfly. He also joined Pinter on the winning 200 medley relay unit that set another meet record.
Forrest Frazier of Iowa City High won the 200 individual medley by nearly 7 seconds. He later broke his own meet record in the 100 breaststroke.
Here are the rest of Ankeny’s top-six finishes in the individual events:
200 freestyle: L. Swanepoel, 1:48.58 (4th).
50 freestyle: J. Swanepoel, 22.34 (4th); Martin, 22.37 (5th).
100 butterfly: L. Swanepoel, 53.07 (2nd); Weston Miner, 53.76 (4th).
100 freestyle: J. Swanepoel, 49.43 (4th); Martin, 50.15 (6th).
100 backstroke: Stukerjurgen, 55.24 (3rd); Miner, 55.41 (4th).
The Hawks will return to action on Jan. 9, when they will host Johnston in a CIML Central Conference dual meet at Trail Point Aquatics Center.