Nicky Wieben was no ordinary athlete.
Already enshrined in the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union Basketball Hall of Fame, the former Ankeny star was inducted into the IGHSAU Swimming Hall of Fame on Saturday during the state meet at Marshalltown. She became the first Ankeny swimmer to be inducted, and she joins a short list of athletes to be enshrined for multiple sports.
“When I talked with one of the board members, they told me it’s not normal to have someone in the Hall of Fame for two sports,” said Wieben. “But he told me that they liked the fact that I showed you can focus on more than one sport and excel at both of them.”
Wieben was a four-time state champion at Ankeny, where she also won six individual and seven relay conference titles. As a senior in 2004, she led the Hawkettes to a runner-up finish at the state meet–their highest finish ever.
Wieben won the 50 freestyle in 24.35 seconds, breaking her own school record. She then won the 100 freestyle in 52.99 to erase another AHS mark that was previously held by her sister, Jamie.
“Honestly, the only reason I started swimming was because I was tired of going to Jamie’s meets and watching her,” Wieben said. “I wanted to do it, too.”
As a freshman in 2001, Wieben joined her sister on the winning 400 freestyle relay. Nicky swam the opening leg in 54.68, putting her team ahead for good.
“That’s by far my best memory of swimming at Ankeny,” Wieben recalled in 2021 when both sisters were named to Ankeny Fanatic’s all-time Ankeny girls’ swimming team. “Jamie told me if I got us a lead then she would finish it, because she was the anchor. I led off and swam the fastest 100 free time of my career and got us the lead. I got out and looked at her and said, ‘Your turn.’ She was swimming against Roosevelt’s anchor, Katie Martin, who had beat her earlier in an event. So those two went head-to-head and Jamie barely outreached (Martin) and we won! It was my first state title, and it was with my sister.”
Wieben also won a state title in the 200 medley relay as a senior. Her coach, Mark Nordby, recalled in 2021 that Wieben’s pure speed and athleticism were unmatched in the pool.
“Nicky was pretty intimidating at 6 feet 4 inches,” Nordby said. “She often had a half body length lead going into the turn of a 50 free sprint and would come out nearly a body length ahead against solid sprinters. I can’t remember anybody ever out-touching Nicky at the finish of a race.”
Wieben also used her height to become a basketball star, leading Ankeny to a record four consecutive Class 4A state titles. She went on to play that sport at Iowa State, and she was later named the captain of the five-player team on the Ankeny Fanatic all-time Ankeny girls’ basketball squad.
In 2006, Wieben was ranked No. 8 by the Ankeny Register & Press Citizen on the list of Ankeny High School’s 50 greatest athletes. She said the discipline that the sport of swimming requires helped her on the basketball court.
“Swimming is such a different sport, and it really helped me,” she said. “I didn’t have a lot of serious injuries until my junior or senior year of college. I think swimming in high school really helped my body. It was just easier to get my body in shape.”
Wieben said she has wondered at times how far she could have taken her talents as a swimmer.
“I always tell my husband and my dad, I could have been in the Olympics for swimming,” she said. “I wanted to be in the Olympics. When I graduated at Iowa State, I talked to one of the men’s coaches and he mentioned that the women’s team was needing sprinters, and maybe I should look at coming back for a year and swimming. In that moment, I wish I would have tried it. But I had signed a contract to go to Greece to play basketball.
“It would have been fun to at least try it. That passion for swimming will always be there,” she added.