Despite mixing up its lineup, the Ankeny girls’ swimming team rolled to a 133-50 victory over visiting Council Bluffs Lewis Central on Thursday at Trail Point Aquatics Center.
Ankeny won eight of the 12 events to raise its record to 5-1. The Titans fell to 1-4 on the season.
“It was great to compete against Lewis Central in a fun non-conference meet!” said Ankeny coach Dustin Rhoads. “They have a couple very good state level girls that helped push us in many races. Most of our girls were in at least one different event. It’s always good to see what all they can do, and nobody likes doing the same events every single meet.”
Ankeny got victories from Rowen Hutzell in the 50 freestyle (26.99), Holland Villhauer in the 100 butterfly (1:03.16), Addy Mason in the 100 backstroke (1:06.81) and Abigail Brugman in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.99).
Isla Corron won the diving event with a score of 232.55 points. Teammates Lilah Beall (178.65) and Lydia Beenen (169.25) took second and third, respectively.
“The divers were great again, all having season-best scores!” Rhoads said. “A bit of that might be because their coach–and that would be me–had to judge diving in place of Lewis Central, but they were awesome and very consistent again.”
Ankeny opened the swimming portion of the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Brugman, Hutzell, Charlie Villhauer and Maggie Blackmore was clocked in 1:56.08.
Blackmore later anchored the winning 200 freestyle relay. She teamed up with Allie Breuner, Allie Kearney and Avery Anderson to post a time of 1:48.02.
Ankeny also won the 400 freestyle relay in a time of 3:52.46. That team consisted of Blackmore, Brugman, Charlie Villhauer and Anderson.
The meet featured some close races. Mason edged teammate Kylee Stone by .03 seconds in the backstroke, while Blackmore posted a time of 5:24.51 in the 500 freestyle while placing second behind Lewis Central’s Elise Knispel–who was clocked in 5:24.41.
Brugman edged Kearney by .11 seconds in the breaststroke. Charlie Villhauer finished .15 behind Hutzell in the 50 freestyle.
“I am excited where we are at as a team, but we still have a ways to go to reach our potential,” Rhoads said. “The season is a grind, and we have to work hard but also find time to recover and hopefully avoid sickness as much as possible.”
Ankeny will travel to Waukee on Monday for a CIML Conference meet against the unbeaten Warriors (7-0) at the Waukee Natatorium.
“We have big duals coming up against Waukee, Johnston and Ames to close out September so we are trying to see all of the data and times to figure out what’s our best possible lineup,” Rhoads said. “This kind of meet helps with that.”