Sports : Depth Propels Stormin’ Vikings Strong Showing

The Stormin' Viking swim team used both the normally strong top of the line-up and some great depth Saturday in scoring a strong second place finish at the annual Waterloo Invitational.  The event was moved to Cedar Falls due to a pool failure at Waterloo - but neither that nor a 30-minute delay due to a computer crash - could slow down the red-hot Vikes.  Participants included host Waterloo, Decorah, Newton, Spencer and Keokuk.

After the delay, the team started out fast with the Medley Relay of Bradyn Schlief, Carter Kirtz, Isaac Allsup and Ian Allsup absolutely dominating the field with a time of 1:44.63 - this time is currently ranked 14th in the state and is about 4.5 seconds ahead of where that relay was at this time last year.

Individual winners on the day were Isaac Allsup in the 100 Back, Ian Allsup in the 100 Free and Carter Kirtz in the 100 Breast.  Kirtz hit his fastest time of the year in winning a tight head to head race with 5th ranked Jaden Dydell of Newton and now sits 8th in the State of Iowa.

But a key part of the story has to be not just the "big 4" of Allsup, Allsup, Kirts and Schlief, but the guys across the rest of the lineup that scored points.  With the meet scoring 12 places per event, the team's depth really made a difference. 

Steven Wichtendahl scored four points in the 200 Free, freshman Aleric Weber scored 22 points in the 200 Free and 100 Back with a pair of 4th place finishes and fellow freshman Wes Farrell scored 10 points with a 5th in the 100 Back as well as being a key contributor on three scoring relays.  Sophomores Reid Hermanson and Ryan Williams added 10 points with 7th and 9th place finishes in the 500 Free and Ian Vrba and Logan Zearley finished 5th and 6th in the 100 Breast for another 19 points.  These points proved critical as the Stormin' Vikes beat third place Newton by 34.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Stormin' Vikes return to action hosting Grinnell at 4:30 for senior night.  The meet is not open to the general public due to the tight confines of the facility, but it will be streamed on the district's Facebook page.