The Ankeny girls’ swimming team avenged a pair of dual-meet losses during the regular season while placing fourth in the CIML Conference meet on Saturday at the Waukee Natatorium.
The seventh-ranked Hawkettes racked up 309 points to finish far ahead of No. 11 Valley (199 points) and No. 5 Johnston (152), two teams that they lost to last month.
“We had a great conference meet,” said Ankeny coach Dustin Rhoads, whose team is now 18-13 overall. “It was fun to watch all of the best in the CIML race all together at one meet. I’m proud of the girls and their efforts.”
The top four teams finished in the same order as last season. Top-ranked Dowling Catholic scored 472.5 points to defend its title, No. 2 Waukee Northwest was second with 424, and No. 6 Waukee took third with 340.5.
“Placing fourth as a team was big for us and our confidence going into regionals,” Rhoads said. “We will get a lot more rest these next couple weeks and work on all of the details to help us be at our best for the end of the season.”
Charlie Villhauer provided Ankeny’s top individual finish on Saturday. She placed fourth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:00.87, while teammate Hayden Ocheltree took eighth in the same event in 1:04.64.
Villhauer then added a fifth-place finish in the 100 freestyle. She was clocked in 57.44 seconds.
Villhauer also swam the opening leg for Ankeny’s fourth-place 200 freestyle relay. She teamed up with Madi Trosper, Abigail Brugman and Maggie Blackmore to post a time of 1:44.68.
Blackmore placed fifth in a pair of events. She posted times of 2:03.12 in the 200 freestyle and 5:30.96 in the 500 freestyle.
Trosper was seventh in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.12. She earlier placed eighth in the 50 freestyle in 26.04 seconds.
Piper Hedrick took seventh in the 500 freestyle in 5:41.85. She earlier placed fifth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:22.75.
Allie Kearney placed seventh in the 200 IM in 2:24.26. She later finished eighth in the backstroke in 1:06.73.
Kylee Stone added a 10th-place finish in the backstroke in 1:07.72. Alivia Dacey finished 10th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:18.39.
Avery Anderson earned a pair of top-10 finishes in the distance events. She placed seventh in the 200 freestyle in 2:06.00, then took 10th in the 500 freestyle 5:45.58.
Ankeny opened the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Trosper, Kearney, Villhauer and Brugman was clocked in 1:57.03.
The Hawkettes later closed out the meet with another fifth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. Blackmore, Hedrick and Kearney teamed up with Adi Dee to post a time of 3:56.89.
Ankeny will compete in the regional diving meet on Nov. 6 at Johnston. The regional swimming meet will be held there on Nov. 8.
“It’s going to be a battle for the team title at regionals with Johnston and Lewis Central, but I like where we are at and know that we will be ready for the challenge,” Rhoads said. “The goal will be to get as many girls on our team advanced to the state meet as possible! It’s going to be fun. This time of the year is always exciting to see the hard work start to pay off!”