The Ankeny boys’ swimming team was only three points away from reaching its goal.
Coach Dustin Rhoads’ squad opened the season on Tuesday by placing fifth among eight teams in the Ankeny Sprint Invitational at Trail Point Aquatics Center. Ankeny scored 293.5 points and finished just behind fourth-place Dowling Catholic, which ended up with 296.
“This meet is always a fun way to kick off the boys’ season and see where our team is at,” said Rhoads. “We wanted to finish in the top half of the team standings so we just missed that goal, but I was pleased with how the boys raced and competed all night.”
Waukee Northwest racked up 447 points to defend its team title. Waukee was second with 363.5, followed by Valley with 340.
Ankeny’s lone victory came in the 50 butterfly, where Bryer Pearson won the event in 23.14. He edged Isaac Clark of Boone by .24 seconds.
Pearson later placed fourth behind Clark in the 25 freestyle in 10.31 seconds. Clark won that race in 9.75.
“Bryer’s win in the 50 fly was pretty cool,” Rhoads said. “He was racing one of the top sprinters in the state (Clark) so that was awesome to see him get his hands to the wall first. Hopefully, that will give him confidence moving forward.”
Ankeny’s Noah Kearney placed sixth in a pair of events. He posted times of 58.60 in the 100 individual medley and 26.49 in the 50 backstroke.
Kearney finished just ahead of teammate Landon Wisehart in the 100 IM. Wisehart took seventh in 58.84, that later placed 10th in the 50 breaststroke in 30.12.
Wilson Pous-Ojeda contributed a sixth-place finish in the 200 freestyle. He was clocked in 1:53.04.
Jake Smith placed seventh in the 100 freestyle in 50.28. He earlier took ninth in the 50 freestyle in 23.43.
Jack Walsh added ninth-place finish in the butterfly. He posted a time of 25.62.
“This meet is a lot of different events, specifically all the sprint events,” Rhoads said. “High school swimming has gotten so fast where everything is a sprint so it was good for us to compete and see that.”
Ankeny opened the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Kearney, Wisehart, Pearson and Smith was clocked in 1:41.39.
Wisehart later anchored Ankeny to a sixth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. He teamed up with Smith, Pous-Ojeda and Miles Harbert to post a time of 3:28.15.
Harbert also swam on the seventh-place 200 freestyle relay. He combined with Pearson, Kearney and Ike Evans to post a time of 1:33.89.
“Again, I am happy with where we are at, but I will be the first to admit we have a long ways to go and a lot of hard work to do,” Rhoads said. “This team has a lot of potential and great humans on it so I look forward to working with them and watching them improve over these next few months!”
Ankeny will return to action on Dec. 4, when it hosts Waukee in its CIML Conference opener.
