Three wins power NCMP to third at Cardinal Invitational

Sarah Patterson continues to use last year’s results as a way to motivate her squad this winter.

The Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella boys’ swim team placed fifth last season at its home invitational and Patterson hoped this year’s group could get into the top three.

Led by a trio of victories, NCMP did finish third in the six-team standings with 230 points. Decorah won the annual Cardinal Invitational with 302 points, edging Indianola (293) by nine points.

The rest of the six-team field included Grinnell/BGM (198), Vinton-Shellsburg (159) and Oskaloosa (80).

The NCMP junior varsity swimmers placed fifth with 81 points. Decorah scored 124 at the top and Vinton-Shellsburg (104) and Grinnell/BGM (102) also scored more than 100 points.

“We had a terrific Cardinal Invite,” Patterson said. “Overall, super happy with the meet and where we are headed. As long as the guys keep training hard, taking care of themselves and believing in each other, we are going to have a heck of a season.”

The three victories for NCMP came in the 400-meter freestyle relay, the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.

The Cardinals won the 400 freestyle relay in 3 minutes, 58.33 seconds. That foursome included Eli Eekhoff, Clay Lamb, MacK Copeland and Finn Martin.

NCMP’s 200 freestyle relay was second and the 200 medley relay finished fourth.

Eekhoff, Lamb, Mason Gaulke and Martin completed the 200 freestyle relay in a runner-up time of 1:47.7. The 200 medley relay group featured Drew Fuller, Brady Comer, Martin and Eekhoff and they finished in 2:02.6.

“The most exciting event of the day was the last one,” Patterson said. “We battled with Indianola back and forth until freshman Finn Martin dove in for the last leg and posted a blistering 55.0 for the final split.

“We won the event and beat Indianola by almost 5 seconds. The crowd was going crazy — it was so much fun.”

Martin and Lamb secured the other victories. Lamb won the 100 butterfly in 1:06.62 and Martin swam to the win in 100 freestyle in 55.19 seconds.

“Both guys had great swims and fast times for this point in the season,” Patterson said. " And they both work really hard so it’s fun to see the hard work pay off. We try to race each other in practice all the time, and I always put these two next to each other for fast fly training.”

The only other top-three finish came from Eekhoff in the 50 freestyle. He was second in 26.0.

Comer was fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.32 and Gaulke placed fourth in the 200 individual medley in 2:45.4. Jonah Brown finished fifth in the 200 IM, hitting the wall in 2:47.83.

“Eli Eekhoff’s splits were a huge part of our relay success at this meet,” Patterson said. “His training has been spot-on, and he is super fun to watch. I feel like we are just scratching the surface with all of our guys.

“Brady Comer is having an outstanding season. He’s posting 50 breast splits that are right up there with some of the top guys in the state, and he keeps getting stronger. He’s been training really well, and I’m so excited to see him keep improving.”

The other fifth-place finishes came from Lamb (2:18.81) in the 200 freestyle and Copeland (5:22.5) in the 400 freestyle. Copeland (2:26.16) also was sixth in the 200 freestyle.

Copeland’s time in the 400 freestyle was 30 seconds faster than his time at this event last season.