MARSHALLTOWN – For the Washington swimmers at the boys state meet Saturday, losing never felt so good.

In finishing second to runaway winner Iowa City West, the Warriors exceeded all expectations.

“They are a great, great team,” Washington Coach Chris Cruise said afterward of the first-time state champion Trojans, “with some very talented swimmers.

“Coming in second to them feels like coming in first.”

Led by a pair of All-American sophomores in Aidan Keen and Mark McGlaughlin, each of whom picked up four gold medals at the Marshalltown YMCA pool, West won seven of 11 events and racked up a team total of 205 points.

But in a total team effort up and down its deep roster, Washington was the cream of the rest of the crop with 136 points. In a tight race right down to end, the Warriors edged potent West Des Moines Valley 136 to 124.

“On paper based on times coming into the meet, we were 40 points behind Valley,” Cruise noted.

“We just got a tremendous effort from a lot of our kids today. It's a result of all the hard work they've put in this year.

“It was an awesome day for our team.”

And it marked the highest finish for a Warrior team since their last state title in 2008.

The best Washington could do was a runner-up finish by junior Jared Thorson in the 100-yard butterfly.

He dropped his time by nearly a second, but repeat champion RJ Hemmingsen of Council Bluffs Lewis Central (a University of Iowa recruit) dropped his time by nearly three seconds and broke an 11-year-old state record in the event.

“He looked like a dolphin," Thorson remarked. “But I'm real happy with what I did.”

Warrior sophomore Nick Saulnier, who entered the meet ranked seventh in the 200 yard individual medley, finished fast for a third place bronze medal.

He was seventh out of eight swimmers in his heat going into the freestyle but put on a furious final two laps.

“I dropped almost two seconds,” he pointed out. “But the team as a whole today really blew me away.”

Cruise said valuable points were picked up due to the depth of the roster.

“If I had to pick a swim of the day it would probably be Sami Scheetz in his leg of the 200 freestyle relay. He had a tremendous race and held his spot.”

With Thorson following him in the anchor slot, the Warriors claimed third place in an extremely tight duel behind West and Valley.

“We were seeded fourth,” said Scheetz, a senior who dropped an amazing 1.2 seconds off his best time in the relay. “So coming in third was big for us.”

Fellow senior Nick Durin swam on the same relay and came back shortly after to win his heat in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Seeded ninth, he shaved more than a second from his best time to claim sixth place.

Durin also was credited by teammates with steadying the nerves of freshman Cameron Kelley for his maiden state meet swim in the 500 freestyle.

Although he was seeded sixth, Kelley cut his time by over seven seconds and came in third.

“He was super nervous,” Durin said. “I gave him a little motivational speech and tried to pump him up.

“Swimming is the number one individual team sport. So to do as well as we we did today is a great way to cap off a senior season.

“We're very happy.”

STATE SWIMMING MEET
At Marshalltown YMCA

Team standings
1. Iowa City West 205, 2. Washington 136, 3. WDM Valley 124, 4. Hempstead 111, 5. Lewis Central 101, 6. Johnston 87, 7. Dowling 85, 8. Dubuque Senior 83, 9. Bettendorf 70, 10. Pleasant Valley 54

11. Waukee 47, 12. Muscatine 43, 13. Ames 37, 14. Newton 24, 15. Davenport Central 22, 16. Ankeny 18, 17. Linn-Mar 17, 18. Kennedy 16, 19. (tie) Iowa City High, Boone 6

21. Burlington 4, 22. (tie) Waterloo West, Davenport North 3

200 Medley Relay
1. Iowa City West 1:35.94
2. WDM Valley 1:36.24
3. WDM Dowling 1:36.66
4. Hempstead 1:36.69
5. Washington (Saulnier, Scheetz, Durin, Kehoe) 1:36.85
6. Bettendorf 1:37.65
13. Linn-Mar (McNeal, Decker, Hendricks, Roggendorf) 1:39.94
20. Kennedy (Urbi, Kitsos, Schoenauer, Gibson) 1:42.89
24. Jefferson (Schmuecker, P.Hummell, Homan, L.Hummell) 1:45.05

200 Freestyle
1. Aidan Keen (IC West) 1:40.91
2. Nathan Spencer (Bettendorf) 1:43.86
3. Ben Colin (Dub. Sr.) 1:44.61
4. Chris Duehr (Hempstead) 1:44.82
5. Jack Scafuri (Waukee) 1:44.88
6. Dane Van Allen (Ames) 1:45.15
8. Cameron Kelley (CRW) 1:46.03

200 Individual Medley
1. Alex Walton (Muscatine) 1:53.47
2. Justin Winnett (Johnston) 1:53.62
3. Nick Saulnier (CRW) 1:56.71
4. Nick Staver (Pleasant Valley) 1:56.82
5. Luke Eure (Dav. Central) 1:56.93
6. Charles Warren (Hempstead) 1:57.36
17. Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 2:01.70
21. Matt Jackson (CRW) 2:03.26
22. Calvin Greve (Linn-Mar) 2:03.58

50 Freestyle
1. Mark McGlaughlin (IC West) 20.67
2. RJ Hemmingsen (Lewis Central) 21.06
3. Sam Gorham (WDM Valley) 21.18
4. Oliver Martin (IC West) 21.62
5. Brennan Urbi (CRK) 21.64
6. Alec Rutkowski (Hempstead) 21.71
7. Nick Durin (CRW) 21.76
9. Jared Thorson (CRW) 21.82
16. Justin Arebaugh (Linn-Mar) 22.36
24. Jakob Kehoe (CRW) 22.60

100 Butterfly
1. RJ Hemmingsen (Lewis Central) 47.84 (state record, old mark 48.58, Andrew Van Meter (Ames) 2003)
2. Jared Thorson (CRW) 51.04
3. Oliver Martin (IC West) 51.85
4, Ethan Eiler (WDM Valley) 52.59
5. James Bussey (Dowling) 52.89
6. Taylor Severson (Lewis Central) 53..08
10. Duggan Trenary (Linn-Mar) 53.64
21t. Matt Jackson (CRW) 54.95
23. Zach Hendricks (Linn-Mar) 55.17

100 Freestyle
1. Mark McGlaughlin (IC West) 45.00
2. John Colin (Dub. Sr.) 45.67
3. Sam Gorham (WDM Vallley) 45.69
4. Alec Rutkowski (Hempstead) 47.17
5. Carl Skoog (WDM Valley) 47.35
6. Stjepan Fiolic (Johnston) 47.53
12. Kyle McNeal (Linn-Mar) 48.68
22. Justin Arebaugh (Linn-Mar) 49.78

500 Freestyle
1. Aidan Keen (IC West) 4:37.48
2. Dane Van Allen (Ames) 4:41.80
3. Cameron Kelley (CRW) 4:43.12
4. Ben Colin (Dub. Sr.) 4:44.36
5. Chris Duehr (Hempstead) 4:44.39
6. Spencer Clark (Dowling) 4:46.60

200 Freestyle Relay
1. Iowa City West 1:25.46
2. WDM Valley 1:25.67
3. Washington (Kehoe, Durin, Scheetz, Thorson) 1:25.94
4. Johnston 1:26.73
5. Lewis Central 1:28.13
6. Waukee 1:28.81
10. Linn-Mar (Arebaugh, M.Ramsey, Trenary, Roggendorf) 1:29.33
15. Kennedy (Urbi, Schoenauer, Batterson, Kitsos) 1:30.18

100 Backstroke
1. Alex Walton (Muscatine) 50.59
2. John Colin (Dub. Sr.) 51.62
3. Luke Eure (Dav. Central) 51.64
4. Charles Warren (Hempstead) 52.37
5. Nick Saulnier (CRW) 52.40
6. Caleb Shudak (Lewis Central) 52.62
7. Calvin Greve (Linn-Mar) 52.77
9. Brennan Urbi (CRK) 53.68
11. Cam Bentley (CRW) 54.45
13. Kyle McNeal (Linn-Mar) 54.64
18. Ian McElree (CRW) 55.80

100 Breaststroke
1. Justin Winnett (Johnston) 56.38
2. Nick Staver (Pleasant Valley) 57.30
3. Tanner Nelson (Bettendorf) 58.04
4. Michael Sovers (Muscatine) 58.81
5. Peyton Gaumer (Dowling) 59.08
6. Nick Durin (CRW) 59.59
11. Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 1:01.32
17. Paul Hummell (CRJ) 1:01.77
21. Sami Scheetz (CRW) 1:02.19

400 Freestyle Relay
1. Iowa City West 3:08.43
2. WDM Valley 3:08.78
3. Hempstead 3:09.70
4. Lewis Central 3:13.17
5. Dubuque Senior 3:14.00
6. Washington (Thorson, Kelley, McElree, Saulnier) 3:14.32
13. Linn-Mar (Arebaugh, Roggendorf, Trenary, McNeal) 3:16.28
24. Jefferson (L.Hummell, Martin, Homan, P.Hummell) 3:30.32