Jefferson Boys Swimming

Hummel shows 'all guts and heart' for J-Hawks

MARSHALLTOWN – The most gutsy performance at the boys state swimming championships Saturday was turned in by Cedar Rapids Jefferson sophomore Paul Hummel.

He came close to matching his all-time personal best times in both of his races despite undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Thursday.

“I told him it was his choice if he wanted to swim or not,” said J-Hawk Coach Ryan York.

Hummel, a 6-foot-3 breaststroke specialist who also normally swims on the freestyle relays, said that once he got in the water, he felt fine.

“Oh, it hurt just a little bit,” he said matter-of-factly. “Not that bad. I felt pretty good, actually.”

He started getting excruciating stomach pains on Wednesday afternoon just before practice. York said he had a friend in college who suffered an attack of appendicitis with similar symtoms.

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Wash swimmers win 52nd title in row

Cedar Rapids Washington’s dominance at the boys district swimming meet has to end sooner or later.

But not for now.

A bunch of pool records were set Saturday at the first-ever district meet at the luxurious new Linn-Mar Aquatic Center, most of them by a small fleet of fast swimmers from Iowa City West.

Still, for the 52nd year in a row, the team championship was claimed by a gutsy gang of Washington Warriors who refused to see the magical streak stopped on their watch.

It wasn’t until the last race of the day in the 400 yard freestyle relay that they knew they had the title in the bag. Even if they were disqualified, they would have won by a half-point.

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Linn-Mar swimmers sink Jefferson

The Linn-Mar boys swimming team battered Jefferson 126-38 Tuesday at Jefferson.

Matt Peng and Zach Hendricks each won two events for the Lions. Peng took first place in the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 50.10 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 58.44. Hendricks won the 200 individual medley in 2:13.15 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.02.

Reid Snell won the 50 freestyle in 23.80 for Linn-Mar, Justin Arebaugh won the 100 butterfly in 57.09, Calvin Greve won the 100 freestyle in 49.93, and the Lions won the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays.

Max McChesney won the 500 freestyle in 5:29.92 for the J-Hawks.

LINN-MAR 126, JEFFERSON 38