The Cedar Rapids Washington boys swimming team enjoys a stiff challenge from top competition, even if it means the Warriors don't collect all the first-place medals.

That's why they invited a strong field to the 2012 Jim Voss Invitational Saturday afternoon at the Washington pool.

The meet featured No. 3 Ankeny, No. 4 West Des Moines Valley, No. 9 Cedar Falls, No. 10 Bettendorf, two strong clubs from Waukesha, Wis., and No. 5 Washington.

"Competing against the best teams allows you to get better and prove yourself against stiff competition," said Washington Coach Chris Cruise. "You don't learn a whole lot by swimming against teams that you're far superior or way inferior to.

"When we have a meet like this, where there's a lot of real competitive teams and a lot of real good swimmers, it really strengthens our team and really prepares us for our end-of-the-season goals and the things we want to try and do."

The Warriors feel they swam well, but Josh Hughes was their only winner, taking the grueling 500-yard freestyle. Morgan Barnes and Ian Ford, their two top seniors, had near-misses and finished second in a pair of exciting races that served as good measuring sticks.

"We want to see how we're doing compared to the rest of the state," said Barnes, who placed second in the 200 freestyle by a whisker. "It's fun to see how we're doing. I enjoy seeing the type of competition that we don't get to see too often."

Lucas Klinker of Ankeny captured the 200 freestyle in 1:46.38. Barnes touched nine-hundredths of a second later in 1:46.47.

Ford had a similar experience in the 200 individual medley. Jacob Melville of Waukesha West won the race in 1:59.49, with Ford touching less than a half-second later in 1:59.91.

"I look forward to this meet every year, mainly because it's two fast teams from Wisconsin and several of the fastest teams in Iowa that are going to make a good show at state," said Ford. "I'm not discouraged or disappointed in any way, shape or form."

Ankeny won the team championship by a half-point over West Des Moines Valley, 307 to 306.5, in an incredibly tight finish. Washington placed third with 208.5 points.

Ankeny won four of 11 races and the two teams from Waukesha, Wis., combined for four other victories. That left one win apiece for Washington, Cedar Falls and West Des Moines Valley.

Lucas Klinker (Ankeny), Jacob Klinker (Ankeny), Jacob Melville (Waukesha West) and Alex Swain (Waukesha South) participated in two victories apiece.

Hughes finished third in the 200 freestyle for Washington, Barnes was third in the 100 freestyle, Ford placed fourth in the 100 backstroke and Jared Thorson finished fourth in the 100 butterly. The Warriors placed third in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay.

Cruise thinks the meet was a good learning experience for his team.

"How does the old saying go? Sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do from a win," he remarked. "And hopefully our kids will take some of the things they did today and feel good about the gains they made in time and the way they were able to fight and scratch and claw and really keep up with a lot of these guys.

"But I hope they also realize that we've got a lot of things to learn and a lot of improvements to make. Sometimes they listen a little bit better when you have a situation like that, where they don't necessarily win and don't feel like they're on top of the world."

Cruise is looking forward to the conference, district and state meets in coming weeks.

"We continue to see some good things on a night-in and night-out basis from our kids, a little bit here and a little bit there," he said. "When you add all of that up and put it all together, at the end of the year I think we'll be pretty competitive."

JIM VOSS INVITATIONAL

Team Standings

1. Ankeny 307, 2. West Des Moines Valley 306.5, 3. Washington 208.5, 4. Cedar Falls 147, 5. Waukesha (Wis.) South 122.5, 6. Bettendorf 118.5, 7. Waukesha (Wis.) West 92.

200 Medley Relay
1. Ankeny (Suby, Braadt, Settle, Burr) 1:41.82.
2. WDM Valley (Elliott, VanDike, Davick, Cunningham) 1:41.96.
3. Washington (Ford, Scheetz, Thorson, Allison) 1:42.27.
4. Cedar Falls (Clements, Sund, Stern, Langner) 1:42.33.
5. Waukesha South (Carlson, Manchon, Swain, Hennion) 1:45.36.
6. Bettendorf (Entwistle, Scheerer, Gayton, Allen) 1:46.30.

200 Freestyle
1. Lucas Klinker, Ankeny, 1:46.38.
2. Morgan Barnes, Wash, 1:46.47.
3. Josh Hughes, Wash, 1:46.66.
4. David Wright, Waukesha West, 1:50.57.
5. Chandler Cox, Ankeny, 1:51.43.
6. David Merriman, WDM Valley, 1:52.22.

200 Individual Medley
1. Jacob Melville, Waukesha West, 1:59.49.
2. Ian Ford, Wash, 1:59.91.
3. Alec Carlson, Waukesha South, 2:04.19.
4. Logan Braadt, Ankeny, 2:04.23.
5. Jake Sund, Cedar Falls, 2:07.07.
6. Jaden VanDike, WDM Valley, 2:07.62.

50 Freestyle
1. Alex Swain, Waukesha South, 22.38.
2. Nate Harris, WDM Valley, 22.55.
3. Jacob Burr, Ankeny, 22.56.
4. Derek Yu, WDM Valley, 22.95.
5. Joe Cunningham, WDM Valley, 23.38.
6. Ethan Settle, Ankeny, 23.50.

100 Butterfly
1. Alex Swain, Waukesha South, 53.67.
2. Stephen Davick, WDM Valley, 55.30.
3. Joe Gayton, Bettendorf, 55.68.
4. Jared Thorson, Wash, 56.03.
5. David Wright, Waukesha West, 57.29.
6. Brady Stern, Cedar Falls, 57.53.

100 Freestyle
1. Jacob Klinker, Ankeny, 49.60.
2. Alex Bodin, WDM Valley, 49.83.
3. (tie) Morgan Barnes, Wash, 49.97.
3. (tie) Nate Harris, WDM Valley, 49.97.
5. Jordan Suby, Ankeny, 51.34.
6. Jacob Burr, Ankeny, 51.86.

500 Freestyle
1. Josh Hughes, Wash, 4:54.43.
2. Chandler Cox, Ankeny, 4:58.20.
3. Gabe Langner, Cedar Falls, 5:01.12.
4. David Merriman, WDM Valley, 5:01.90.
5. Joe Gayton, Bettendorf, 5:05.13.
6. Adric Sorensen, Ankeny, 5:10.63.

200 Freestyle Relay
1. Ankeny (Burr, K. Klinker, Deters, J. Klinker) 1:28.78.
2. WDM Valley (Yu, Cunningham, Harris, Bodin) 1:29.39.
3. Washington (Allison, Thorson, M. Barnes, Hughes) 1:33.37.
4. Cedar Falls (Michels, Langner, Stern, Clements) 1:34.52.
5. WDM Valley (Davick, Elliott, Merriman, VanDike) 1:34.94.
6. Ankeny (Suby, Haws, Shumaker, Cox) 1:35.73.

100 Backstroke
1. Conner Clements, Cedar Falls, 53.88.
2. Lucas Klinker, Ankeny, 54.12.
3. Alec Carlson, Waukesha South, 54.44.
4. Ian Ford, Wash, 54.74.
5. Jacob Klinker, Ankeny, 55.78.
6. Coner Elliott, WDM Valley, 56.98.

100 Breaststroke
1. Jacob Melville, Waukesha West, 1:02.12.
2. Jaden VanDike, WDM Valley, 1:02.19.
3. Alex Bodin, WDM Valley, 1:03.29.
4. Bill Fletcher, WDM Valley, 1:03.87.
5. Jake Sund, Cedar FAlls, 1:04.25.
6. Tanner Nelson, Bettendorf, 1:06.84.

400 Freestyle Relay
1. WDM Valley (Bodin, Cunningham, Yu, Harris) 3:18.07.
2. Ankeny (Settle, L. Klinker, Cox, J. Klinker) 3:18.73.
3. Washington (Hughes, M. Barnes, Allison, Ford) 3:22.63.
4. Waukesha South (Swain, Carlson, Schmidt, Gerum) 3:24.10.
5. Waukesha West (Wright, Jansen, Woodward, Melville) 3:28.57.
6. Bettendorf (Ketelaar, Bunn, Scheerer, Gayton) 3:28.97.