The Cougar Invitational featured five of the top 13 girls swimming teams in the state, and it was Cedar Falls that showed why it is top-ranked Saturday at the Kennedy pool.

Cedar Falls cruised to first place with 580 points and fifth-ranked Johnston easily took second with 470 points in a star-studded field of teams and individuals.

The real fun came from two Metro teams. No. 7 Linn-Mar and No. 9 Kennedy battled for third throughout the day.  Linn-Mar had a 12-point lead going into the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay.  Despite finishing fifth in the event, the Lions were able to hang onto third place by two points over the Cougars, who finished third in the relay.

The teams gave an indication of how close it would be when Linn-Mar took second to Kennedy’s third in the first event of the day, the 200 medley relay.

The event was one of three top three finishes for Kennedy senior Lexi Scharmer, who got the only individual win for a Metro individual by besting teammate Jordan Muir in the 100 butterfly. Scharmer anchored an intense 400 freestyle relay to close out the day.

“I usually don’t anchor that race,” Scharmer said. “I am good friends with Linn-Mar’s anchor (Alex Dunn) so I wanted to beat her.”

Scharmer was able to beat Dunn and the Lions in the final race of the day, but it was not enough to overcome what the Lions and Dunn had done earlier in the day.

“We swam terrific, I was real pleased with the effort to be so close to a great team like Linn-Mar,” Kennedy Coach John Ross said. “It should be fun at the end of the year.”

Dunn led the Lions with a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle, second-place finish in the 100 freestyle, and led off the Lions' victorious 200 freestyle relay.

The Lions had top six finishes in nine of the 11 events. Freshman Lizzie Adams was second in the 50 freestyle, and senior Emilie Berg was third in the 100 backstroke and sixth in the 100 butterfly.  The Lions' consistency racked up enough points to capture third place.

“The competition was great, our team swam well,” Linn-Mar Coach Chad Derlein said. “We had good, we had bad. Third is good but it is not what I wanted.”

Jefferson also was entered in the nine-team field. The stacked field of ranked teams was too much for the J-Hawks to make a splash and they finished seventh.

“It was a good meet overall,” Jefferson Coach Ryan York said. “The competition creates challenges along the way.”

Jefferson managed just one top six finish. Senior Kailey Drake took sixth in the 50 freestyle. The meet gave the J-Hawks a chance to see what they need to work on for next month's stretch run.

“(Our) starts and turns will be a huge focus over the next couple weeks,” York said.

Kennedy's Ross didn't put a whole lot of stock in what happened Saturday. The are still six weeks until the state meet is held Nov. 5 at Marshallltown.

“Swimming is unique in that everything we do is geared for the last meet,” Ross said. “Today was a glorified practice.”

COUGAR INVITATIONAL

Teams
1. Cedar Falls 580
2. Johnston 470
3. Linn-Mar 379
4. CR Kennedy 377
5. Decorah 218
6. Dubuque Wahlert 127
7. CR Jefferson 110
8. Williamsburg 51
9. Davenport North 11

200 Medley Relay
1. Cedar Falls A (Abbas, Clasby, Anderson, Phyfe) 1:53.68
2. Linn-Mar (Nicole Larsen, Lauren Dalecky, Emilie Berg, Lizzie Adams) 1:54.71
3. Kennedy (Sam Jacobsen, Amanda Jacobsen, Lexi Scharmer, Hannah Botkin) 1:55.96
4. Cedar Falls B 1:58.13
5. Johnston 1:58.66
6. Jefferson (Erin Kibby, Emily Ritchie, Kylie Steimer, Kailey Drake) 2:01.66

200 Freestyle
1. Brittany Moffatt (CF) 2:01.07
2. Nicole Davis (Johnston) 2:03.83
3. Alex Dunn (Linn-Mar) 2:06.67
4. Alesha Rettenmeier (CF) 2:07.17
5. Lexi Banwart (CF) 2:09.21
6. Larkyn Aldrich (CRK) 2:09.44

200 IM
1. Allison Orvis (Decorah) 2:11.29
2. Kelsey Abbas (CF) 2:14.30
3. Catherine Sell (CF) 2:19.68
4. Victoria Trost (Johnston) 2:25.07
5. Emily Schroeder (Wahlert) 2:26.18
6. Lauren Reynolds (Linn-Mar) 2:26.46

50 Freestyle
1. Astin Phyfe (CF) 25.58
2. Lizzie Adams (Linn-Mar) 25.70
3. Hannah Botkin (CRK) 26.34
4. Emilly Merritt (Johnston) 26.39
5. Caylee Shank (Johnston) 26.42
6. Kailey Drake (CRJ) 26.45

100 Butterfly
1. Lexi Scharmer (CRK) 1:01.71
2. Jordan Muir (CRK) 1:03.02
3. Montana Clasby (CF) 1:03.79
4. Carmen Vajgert (Johnston) 1:03.95
5. Abbie Anderson (CF) 1:05.07
6. Emilie Berg (CF) 1:05.09

100 Freestyle
1. Aftin Phyfe (CF) 55.44
2. Alex Dunn (Linn-Mar) 56.62
3. Caylee Shank (Johnston) 57.37
4. Mollie Greenwood (Johnston) 57.54
5. Martee Grainger (CF) 58.35
6. Lexi Banwart (CF) 58.67

500 Frestyle
1. Brittany Moffatt (CF) 5:26.81
2. Alesha Rettenmeier (CF) 5:29.39
3. Nicole Davis (Johnston) 5:34.50
4. Diana Zarate (CF) 5:46.47
5. Larkyn Aldrich (CRK) 5:47.50
6. Kelly Cherrier (Johnston) 5:48.59

200 Freestyle Relay
1. Linn-Mar (Alex Dunn, Lauren Dalecky, Lizzie Adams, Emilie Berg) 1:42.63
2. Cedar Falls A 1:42.83
3. Decorah 1:44.34
4. Johnston 1:45.08
5. Kennedy (Megan Berst, Amanda Jacobsen, Larkyn Aldrich, Jordan Muir) 1:46.96
6. Cedar Falls B 1:49.14

100 Backstroke
1. Kelsey Abbas (CF) 58.68
2. Allison Orvis (Decorah) 1:00.81
3. Emilie Berg (Linn-Mar) 1:01.89
4. Victoria Trost (Johnston) 1:02.53
5. Sam Jacobsen (CRK) 1:03.53
6. Nicole Larsen (Linn-Mar) 1:04.45

100 Breaststroke
1. Montana Clasby (CF) 1:10.78
2. Carmen Vajgert (Johnston) 1:11.98
3. Catherine Sell (CF) 1:12.94
4. Natalie Shimp (CF) 1:13.20
5. Lauren Dalecky (Linn-Mar) 1:13.56
6. Amanda Jacobsen (CRK) 1:15.54

400 Freestyle Relay
1. Johnston (Trost, Greenwood, Davis, Shank) 3:46.63
2. Cedar Falls 3:49.20
3. Kennedy (Hannah Botkin, Sam Jacobsen, Carly Kenney, Lexi Scharmer) 3:53.77
4. Decorah 3:54.32
5. Linn-Mar (Nicole Larsen, Samantha Fitzgerald, Jessica Arebaugh, Alex Dunn) 3:54.76
6. Johnston B 4:04.11