Iowa Central, Coe Split

The Iowa Central men’s and women’s swimming team started the season off with impressive showings in the season’s first dual meet as the men dominated Coe College 131-39 and the women narrowly lost 84-73 Saturday afternoon in Cedar Rapids.

The men exceeded head swimming coach Jake Anderson’s expectations for the meet as they won every event that they had a swimmer entered in.

“I thought we would do well, and expected to win,” said Anderson. “But to come out and swim that well and win that many events in the first meet of the season exceeded my expectations.”

Iowa Central was able to sweep in a few events as a pair of freshmen swept the 200-yard butterfly. Jake Paasch won in 2:10.97 and Damon Eastman was second in 2:16.98. Iowa Central also shined in the 200-yard Breaststroke as Nolan Barr won the even in 2:21.17, Trent Geurts was second in 2:22.08 and Michael Roche as third in 2:28.48. The 50-yard Freestyle was also taken by Iowa Central as Josh Chung won in 24.40 and Cameron Lennon, despite a cast and starting in the water, took second in 25.24.

The Tritons also dominated the distance events as Tyler Kohles was uncontested in the 1000-yard Freestyle (11:32.99) and the 500 Free (5:34.35). Iowa Central swept the relays as well. On the men’s side, no Coe swimmer finished ahead of an Iowa Central swimmer in the meet.

The women had a very strong showing despite spotting Coe 26 points from the diving competition to begin the meet. The diving was the difference as the women lost by 11 points.

Ellie Savery had a terrific college debut as she won three events and set two school records. She set the school record in the 200-meter Backstroke with a time of 2:29.57 and was a part of the 400-yard Freestyle relay team that set a school record. Savery, Amanda Bujak-Phillips, Megan Hofmaster and Alicyn McCully set a school record with a time of 4:16.30.

Alicyn McCully was also impressive in her first college meet as she also won three events and set a school record in the 200-yard Individual Medley in 2:30.65.

“It was nice to see the girls compete,” said Anderson. “We had some girls swimming some events they weren’t specialists at just so we could get the points, but we’ll need that to help us at nationals.”

The women are still looking for their first dual win since becoming a program in 2008.

“They are close,” said Anderson. “We had some really good girls not swim tonight and I think their points would have helped us win. We’ll break through this season.”

Iowa Central is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 14, when it travels to Sioux City for the Mustang Invite hosted by Morningside College at 12:00 p.m.