Boys swim wins district crown, qualifies all 11 events

Ames hosted one of six IHSAA District Swimming Championship sites on Saturday, where the Little Cyclones defended home water by taking first-place overall in the eight-team event and crowning six individual champions.

The Little Cyclones started the day off with a win in the opening event, the 200 Medley Relay. The chain of Evan Feilmeyer, Joshua Chen, Ian McCorkle, and Tristan Day recorded at time of 1:35.18.

Josh Fisher would win the second event of the day with a nearly six-second victory in the 200 Freestyle, recording a 1:43.10 mark. The Little Cyclones finished 1-2-3 in the event with teammates Tommy Flannery (1:48.90) and Evan McCorkle (1:50.18) collecting silver and bronze.

Joshua Chen won his first of two individual crowns on Saturday with a victory in the 200 IM. Chen paced to a 1:58.38, edging out teammate Chris Fisher (1.59.15)

Ankeny’s Lance Swanepoel – the eventual district swimmer of the year award recipient – collected victories in the 50 Freestyle and 100 Butterly before fellow Hawk Calvin Howard clocked a 48.71 for gold in the 100 Freestyle.

Ames was back on top of the medal stand in the 500 Freestyle as Josh Fisher recorded a 4:46.86, beating out second-place by nearly 10 seconds.

Ankeny claimed a victory in the 200 Freestyle Relay, but the Little Cyclones would take gold in the final two events of the day.

In the 100 Breaststroke, Joshua Chen recorded a state-best 55.51 as Ames went 1-2-3 in the event. Teammate Justin Shin recorded a second-place result at 1:01.12 and brother Nick Chen finished with 1:01.25.

The Little Cyclones’ biggest improvement on the day came in the 400 Freestyle Relay. The quartet of Evan Feilmeyer, Chris Fisher, Ian McCorkle, Josh Fisher blazed to a 3:10.69 mark in the event. Going into Saturday, that would have been the best time in the state by nearly three seconds, but two other squads topped that mark in district competition elsewhere in the state.

FULL DISTRICT RESULTS: https://amescsd.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/ihsaa-district-meet-ames-combined-results-1.pdf

The Little Cyclones will be represented next weekend in all 11 events: including all three relays and maxing out three qualifiers in three unique individual events.

AMES QUALIFIER LIST (with seeds):

RELAYS

• #3 200 Medley Relay: Evan Feilmeyer, Joshua Chen, Ian McCorkle, Tristan Day
• #12 200 Freestyle Relay: Joshua Chen, Tristan Day, Chris Fisher, Josh Fisher
• #3 400 Freestyle Relay: Evan Feilmeyer, Chris Fisher, Ian McCorkle, Josh Fisher

INDIVIDUALS

• 200 Freestyle: #6 Josh Fisher, #27 Tommy Flannery
• 200 IM: #10 Joshua Chen, #14 Chris Fisher, #28 Nick Chen
• 50 Freestyle: #6 Evan Feilmeyer, #20 Tristan Day
• 100 Butterfly: #10 Ian McCorkle
• 100 Freestyle: #25 Tristan Day
• 500 Freestyle: #7 Josh Fisher, #16 Ian McCorkle
• 100 Backstroke: #11 Evan Feilmeyer, #22 Chris Fisher, #25 Tommy Flannery
• 100 Breaststroke: #1 Joshua Chen, #21 Justin Shin, #23 Nick Chen

The IHSAA State Swimming Championships take place at the University of Iowa Campus Wellness and Recreation Center in Iowa City, February 10-11. The Friday sessions kicks off at 5:00 PM with individual prelims. Saturday’s championship heats kick-off at 12:30 PM

STATE MEET INFORMATION: https://www.iahsaa.org/swimming/state-meet-central/

TICKETS: https://www.iahsaa.org/tickets/