Only one power point separated the fifth-ranked Johnston and No. 6 Ankeny girls’ swimming teams heading into Tuesday’s dual meet at Trail Point Aquatics Center.
The Dragons entered the meet with a season best of 2,970 power points while Ankeny had posted a total of 2,969. The two squads were tied with No. 8 Valley for third place in the CIML Conference.
Ankeny was looking to avenge last year’s 102-84 loss to Johnston, but the visiting Dragons racked up a new season best of 3,100 power points while posting a 102-85 victory.
Johnston improved to 2-2 in the league and 7-2 overall. Ankeny’s records dropped to 1-3 and 5-3.
“We had another exciting rivalry meet with Johnston,” said Ankeny coach Dustin Rhoads. “I thought our girls competed hard and swam really well, and our energy and effort was much better than at Waukee last week.”
Each team won six of the 12 events. The Dragons, who were coming off a first-place finish in the Bobcat Invitational on Saturday at Marshalltown, took three of the last four–including the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
Johnston also went 1-2-4 in the 100 breaststroke to help seal its victory.
“Johnston is a very deep team so we knew we all had to step up and swim and dive well to keep up with them,” Rhoads said. “We won more events tonight than we did against Valley and Waukee which was great, but again Johnston was just the deeper team. We tried to get it to come down to the last relay but just ran out of gas. Credit to Johnston, they swam well and deserved to win but we made them earn it!”
Ankeny was led by Maggie Blackmore and Abigail Brugman. They each won two individual events.
Blackmore won the 200 freestyle in a time of 2:00.54. She later captured the 500 freestyle in 5:24.03.
Brugman took the 50 freestyle in 25.86 seconds. She also won the 100 backstroke in 1:03.03.
Charlie Villhauer provided Ankeny’s other individual victory in the 100 butterfly, where she posted a time of 1:01.05. Her sister, Holland, was second in the event in 1:03.16.
Charlie also placed third in the 100 freestyle in 57.01 and helped her team to a win in the 200 medley relay. She teamed up with Brugman, Rowen Hutzell and Piper Hedrick to post a time of 1:54.90.
Ankeny got a runner-up finish in the diving event from Kambelle Subbert. She posted a score of 200.20 points.
Placing third were Avery Anderson in the 200 freestyle (2:06.31), Hedrick in the 200 individual medley (2:21.03), Allie Kearney in the backstroke (1:04.27) and Hutzell in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.52).
Hutzell and Hedrick also helped Ankeny to a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. They teamed up with Alexis Hergenreter and Blackmore to post a time of 1:43.96.
Rhoads’ team later closed out the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. The foursome of Blackmore, Charlie Villhauer, Hergenreter and Brugman was clocked in 3:48.37.
“We can take a lot of positives away from this meet, but most important it shows that every spot and every point matters,” Rhoads said. “If we want to win or do really well as a team, we need everyone to do well. The good news is we have another big meet and opportunity on Tuesday at home against Ames (13-8). We will continue to work hard and get better.”
