Martin wins twice, leads NCMP at Ankeny Sprint Invitational

ANKENY — Finn Martin won a pair of events, Ethan Comer secured a top-10 finish in another individual event and the Newton-Colfax-Mingo-Pella boys swim team finished sixth against a stacked field at the Ankeny Sprint Invitational on Tuesday.

The Cardinals faced defending state champion West Des Moines Valley and three programs who were top 10 last season in the six-team field. NCMP scored 123 points in sixth.

Martin won both the 25- and 50-yard freestyle events. He won the 25 freestyle in 10.0 seconds and his time of 21.32 won the 50 freestyle by a full second.

The next best individual finish came from Ethan Comer, who was eighth in the 50 breaststroke. His time was clocked in 30.09 and seventh finished in 30.01.

The meet featured all sprint events. No event was more than 100 yards in length.

Comer also placed 11th in the 100 individual medley in 59.88 and 10th hit the wall in 59.58. Evan Marshall came in 13th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.48.

NCMP was fifth in the 400 freestyle relay as Martin, Comer, Drew Fuller and MacK Copeland hit the wall in 3 minutes, 32.51 seconds.

The same foursome of Fuller, Comer, Martin and Copeland took sixth in the 200 medley relay in 1:44.67.

Waukee Northwest won the meet with 407 points. Valley finished second with 379 points and Ankeny (308) edged Dowling Catholic (307) for third. Waukee (259) came in fifth.

Ankeny placed ninth as a team at last year’s state meet and Dowling was 10th. This is the first year that Waukee Northwest and Waukee have had their own programs. The two schools combined to finish in the top five last season.