If the Ankeny boys’ swimming team needed a wake-up call, the Hawks got one at the start of Tuesday’s non-conference dual meet at Indianola.
The Indians opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:42.36, edging Ankeny by .27 seconds.
“I have been trying to reiterate to the boys that we are not good enough to just show up and expect teams to roll over and give us wins. Tonight was a good example of that,” said Ankeny coach Justin Crouch. “In the first event, we gave up a first and a third place. Although it was a close race, we did not show up with the intensity early in the meet that I was looking for especially coming off a long layoff.”
Eighth-ranked Ankeny regrouped and went on to win eight of the last 10 races to post a 105-65 victory over No. 12 Indianola. The Hawks improved their overall record to 4-1.
Ankeny had not competed since falling at then-No. 7 Waukee on Dec. 21.
“It has been such a difficult three weeks of training since our last meet,” Crouch said. “We definitely came out sluggish with the rust of not having a meet in three weeks. At the first break we were up by six points, which is still an extremely close margin. I feel like we showed a little more intensity in the second half of the meet, but we definitely need to be able to find that edge.”
Ankeny’s Owen Schwebach won the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:47.87. He later captured the 100 butterfly in 52.71 seconds.
The Hawks also got victories from Calvin Howard in the 200 individual medley (2:07.48), Brock Peterson in the 100 freestyle (51.06), Zach Zinn in the 500 freestyle (5:12.87) and Lance Swanepoel in the 100 backstroke (54.70).
Finn Stukerjurgen was the runner-up in two events, posting times of 2:13.36 in the 200 IM and 5:17.26 in the 500 freestyle. Teammate Hudson Griffin placed second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.29.
Ankeny won the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:31.94, edging the Indians by .42 seconds. The winning team consisted of Schwebach, Howard, Karsten Peters and Peterson.
The Hawks later closed out the meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:25.01. That team was comprised of Schwebach, Owen Evans, Peterson and Zinn.
Crouch said his team is still trying to get healthy as it prepares for the grind of the last month of the season.
“We have some soreness and like every other team we’re trying to get through without COVID-19 derailing our season. It has been challenging,” he said. “I am just continuing to believe in what we are trying to accomplish as a team and hope the boys are sacrificing every day for themselves and each other. The past year and a half has been challenging on everyone but for us to get to the finish line at the state meet in February it is going to take sacrifice and discipline to have the opportunity to do something special at the end of the season.”
Ankeny will host a CIML Iowa Conference dual meet against Fort Dodge on Thursday at Trail Point Aquatics Center.