Sports : Vikings defeat Waterloo East but falls to Decorah

On Thursday night in Waterloo, the Vikings faced familiar foes Decorah and Waterloo East. The Vikings convincingly defeated East while falling to Decorah. As the last meet in a full-sized pool before districts, the Vikings began their tune-up for the post-season with another strong showing, winning three individual events and showing continued significant improvement across the line-up.

For the evening the Vikes recorded another 22 personal best times, led by four from freshman CJ Fowler and three each from seniors Ben Weekly, Jake Stodola and John Levis. Fowler dropped more than 7 seconds in the grueling 200 Individual Medley. Weekly improved his 50 freestyle by 1.34 seconds, a significant drop in a short sprint. Stodola cut a huge amount of time on his 100 split of the 400 freestyle relay coming in 5.44 seconds ahead of his previous best. Levis showed a big drop in winning the 200 freestyle, taking 5.63 seconds off of his early season time to move within 2.3 seconds off the school record for the event. Sophomores Matt Lash and Garrett Wilson also had great showings with Matt taking more than five seconds off both his 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke and Garret slicing 2.33 in the 100 free.

The top individual performances for the night came from senior John Levis and junior Brandon Tharp. Levis won a close race in the 200 free before cruising to a nearly 13 second victory in the 100 butterfly. Brandon Tharp fought through a nagging injury to gut out a big win in the 100 breast. Senior Tyler Naugthon also placed with a solid third in the 100 backstroke, where he also registered a new personal best time.

The Viking relay teams had strong showings in both the 200 and 400 free relays, each good for second place. In one of the best finishes of the evening the 200 free relay team of Levis, Tharp, Josh Yerkes and Naughton held off a late charge to nip Decorah by four hundreths of a second.

The Vikings home meet against Waterloo East was postponed Tuesday night due to snow and the make-up day on Friday was also lost to bad weather. At this time there is not yet a make-up date for the meet. The next scheduled meet is at home on Tuesday the 24th against Decorah… weather permitting.

200 Medley Relay A 2:11.09 3rd Tyler Naughton, Brandon Tharp, Josh Yerkes, Jake Stodola

B 2:32.91 5th Marshall Mullenix, CJ Fowler, Drake Tilson, Matt Lash

200 Free 1:56.84 1st John Levis

3:16.89 6th Ben Weekly

200 IM 3:40.66 5th CJ Fowler

50 Free 26.17 5th Brandon Tharp

27.97 7th Jake Stodola

28.61 8th Tyler Naughton

37.70 10th Garrett Wilson

100 Fly 58.76 1st John Levis

100 Free 1:05.00 5th Josh Yerkes

1:08.43 6th Marshall Mullenix

1:28.35 8th Garrett Wilson

500 Free 6:51.75 4th John Eden

7:38.89 5th Drake Tilson

200 Free Relay A 1:48.21 2nd John Levis, Brandon Tharp, Josh Yerkes, Tyler Naughton

B 1:56.17 4th Ben Weekly, Jake Stodola, Marshall Mullenix, John Eden

C 1:56.17 6th Matt Lash, Garrett Wilson, CJ Fowler, Drake Tilson

100 Back 1:22.35 3rd Tyler Naughton

1:26.95 6th Marshall Mullenix

1:27.77 7th Matt Lash

100 Breast 1:16.19 1st Brandon Tharp

1:49.29 6th CJ Fowler

400 Free Relay A 4:17.34 2nd John Levis, Josh Yerkes, Jake Stodola, John Eden

B 5:11.17 6th Drake Tilson, Matt Lash, Garrett Wilson, Matt Lash, Ben Weekly

V-S 106 WE 48

Dec 154 WE 28

Dec 140 V-S 42