The Ankeny boys’ swimming team traveled to eastern Iowa on Saturday for a top-10 matchup against Linn-Mar (Marion).
In the end, the fifth-ranked Lions squeaked out an 87-83 victory in the non-conference dual meet. No. 9 Ankeny’s record dropped to 3-5 on the season.
Linn-Mar won all three of the relay events, including the 400 freestyle relay that decided the outcome. Overall, the Lions captured eight of the 11 events.
“It was a fun dual meet at a great pool,” said Ankeny coach Dustin Rhoads. “I was proud of the guys for competing hard.”
Ankeny swept the top three places in the 500 freestyle. Jake Smith won the event in a time of 5:16.09, followed by Wilson Pous-Ojeda (5:19.51) and Jack Walsh (5:21.18).
Bryer Pearson provided the Hawks’ other two victories. He won the 100 butterfly in 52.72 seconds, then later took the 100 backstroke in 56.19.
Finn Stukerjurgen was the runner-up in the backstroke, posting a time of 56.48. He earlier placed third in the 200 individual medley in 2:03.23.
Brock Peterson placed second in the 200 IM in 2:02.57. He then finished third in the butterfly in 55.45.
Austin Troyer placed second in the 50 freestyle in 22.94 seconds. He then took third in the 100 freestyle in 51.94.
Pous-Ojeda added a runner-up finish in the 200 freestyle. He was clocked in 1:54.92.
Ankeny got third-place finishes from Tanner Young in the 50 freestyle (24.07) and Smith in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.59).
“We came up just short, but had a really good lineup that we wanted to see against a great team,” Rhoads said. “It was similar to what we will probably do for districts, but still have some time to figure that out. We were missing one of our varsity guys that would have made a difference for our depth, but credit to Linn-Mar–they found a way to win all three relays and got third in two of them which ended up being the difference in the team score.
“This was a good experience for our team, and we look forward to honoring our seniors at our final home meet on Tuesday,” he added.
The Hawks will host a CIML Conference dual meet against No. 2 Waukee Northwest at Trail Point Aquatics Center.
