Sports : Vikings win first home meet of season; defeat Waterloo East

The Vinton-Shellsburg men’s swim team kicked off its home schedule with a win over visiting Waterloo East Thursday night at the Iowa Braille School pool. The young Vikings squad celebrated senior night with a wire to wire 57-34 victory.

The Vikes started fast taking first and second in the Medley Relay. The A relay team of freshman Noah Armell, sophomores Anthony Dickerson and John Eden and senior Captain Marshall Mullenix took first with a time of 1:38.65. The same relay team also took first in the 320 Free Relay to cap off the evening.

In addition to anchoring the two relay wins, Marshall Mullenix turned in a first place finish in the 60 Freestyle. Other individual event winners were John Eden in the 100 Butterfly, Anthony Dickerson in the 160 Individual Medley, junior Matt Lash in the 100 Backstroke and senior exchange student Lasse Hedinger in the 100 Breaststroke.

More important than the individual placing was the tremendous amount of improvement made across the board. Of the team’s 16 swimmers 10 are new to the team this season, with a combined eight years of high school swim experience among the group. But the progress that these young men have made in the past two months has been amazing. This year’s squad, while short on experience, is filled with guys who are excited to swim and compete and will continue to make significant improvement. Significant time drops Thursday night included senior Ricky Jeray dropping 9 seconds and senior Cole Miller improving by 5 seconds in the 100 Freestyle. Returning junior Garrett Wilson shaved more than 10 seconds off his previous best 100 Free time.

Tuesday was also a night for the some young swimmers to make their mark. In addition to freshman Noah Armell's win in to 100 Freestyle, fellow freshmen Josh Rake captured second in the 100 Breaststroke and Jonah Blix and Shay Dulin were 4th and 5th in the 60 Freestyle. Sophomores CJ Fowler and Kyle Schemmel also scored team points with second place in the Individual Medley and a third in the 100 Backstroke.

Seniors recognized were Lasse Hedinger, Ricky Jeray, Cole Miller, Marshall Mullenix and Mikia Stegner. Also recognized was senior manager Jesse Dickerson.

Times and results from Tuesday night are below:

Medly Relay A 1st Place 1:38.65 Noah Armell, Anthony Dickerson, John Eden, Marshall Mullenix

B 2nd Place 1:46.69 Matt Lash, Lasse Heddinger, CJ Fowler, Mikia Stegner

C 3rd Place 2:06.48 Kyle Schemmel, Josh Rake, Cole Miller, Garrett Wilson

200 Free 2nd Place 2:43.60 Drake Tilson

4th Place 3:03.07 Shay Dulin

160 IM 1st Place 2:18.37 Dickerson

2nd Place 2:41.02 Fowler

60 Free 1st Place 33.41 Mullenix

3rd Place 38.25 Hedinger

4th Place 40.56 Jonah Blix

5th Place 41.00 Dulin

6th Place 42.28 Jeray

7th Place 43.03 Schemmel

8th Place 45.88 Rake

100 Fly 1st Place 1:17.59 John Eden

3rd Place 1:55.19 CJ Fowler

100 Free 1st Place 1:05.20 Armell

3rd Place 1:10.50 Miller

4th Place 1:18.15 Jeray

5th Place 1:18.25 Wilson

500 Free 3rd Place 7:51.47 Lash

4th Place 8:14.50 Tilson

200 Free Relay B 2nd Place 1:37.64 Miller, Stegner, Jeray, Hedinger

C 3rd Place 1:46.37 Dulin, Blix, Rake, Schemmel

100 Back 1st Place 1:22.32 Lash

3rd Place 1:46.28 Schemmel

100 Breast 1st Place 1:32.03 Hedinger

2nd Place 1:46.33 Rake

320 Free Relay A 1st Place 3:13.42 Armell, Mullenix, Eden, Dickerson

B 3rd Place 3:47.89 Miller, Stegner, Tilson,Lash

C 4th Place 4:04.75 Dulin, Wilson, Blix, Fowler