Ankeny boys’ swimming coach Dustin Rhoads wasn’t too concerned about his team’s 99-71 loss at Valley on Thursday.
“We had a fun meet with them,” Rhoads said. “They are always tough especially at their home pool, but I thought my guys swam pretty well at our final dual meet of 2024. We were missing one of our best swimmers tonight, but I thought a lot of guys stepped up and did well and we saw a lot of season-best times throughout our team. Overall, it was another conference loss, but we are improving and getting better every meet, and will be better off in our upcoming meets because of the great competition of the CIML.”
The third-ranked Tigers won eight of the 11 events, including all three relays. They improved to 3-1 in the CIML and overall, while No. 7 Ankeny’s records dropped to 0-2 and 1-2.
The two teams also met last month in the Sprint Invitational at Ankeny, where Valley placed second with 379 points. The Hawks finished third with 308.
Brock Peterson won a pair of events Thursday for the Hawks. He took the 100 butterfly in 53.70 seconds, then later captured the 100 backstroke in 55.02.
Jake Smith provided Ankeny’s other first-place finish in the 500 freestyle. He won the event in 5:17.83.
Finn Stukerjurgen was the runner-up in both the 200 individual medley (2:02.52) and the backstroke (55.39). Both were very close races–he finished .04 seconds behind Valley’s Will Van Zee in the IM and .37 behind Peterson in the backstroke.
Austin Troyer placed second in the 50 freestyle in 22.84 seconds. Wilson Pous-Ojeda was the runner-up in the 500 freestyle in 5:22.44.
Ankeny opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Noah Kearney, Smith, Peterson and Stukerjurgen was clocked in 1:43.28.
The Hawks also took second in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Peterson, Stukerjurgen, Troyer and Kearney posted a time of 1:32.61.
Ankeny will compete in the Iowa City High Invitational on Saturday.
“I am excited for the varsity team to be back at full strength for the Iowa City High Invitational,” Rhoads said. “We will see some great competition from the east side of the state. This is a meet we have won the past couple of years and is always very fun and fast!”
