Sports

Jayette swimmers battle large field in Saturday meet

September 19, 2017

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pry gswm sarah vaughn lunge — Perry's Sarah Vaughn lunges down her lane on the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay against visiting Indianola Aug. 29.

FORT DODGE — The bus carrying the Perry swim team left Saturday at approximately 7 a.m. It returned shortly after 9 p.m.

No, the team did not make a round trip to Chicago, which they could easily have done in the given time frame. Instead, they endured the lengthy process of competing in the Gary Winkler Invitational in Ft. Dodge.

Consisting of 10 teams, the meet begins with preliminary rounds before concluding with finals. Considering the number of teams and individual swimmers involved, the Jayettes were able to visit a local restaurant and catch a nap on the team bus between the two sessions, making for a long day.

Preliminaries are over, there is plenty of time before having to warm up for finals, and you just crammed carbs at Fazoli’s. What to do? Have the bus driver find some shade and …. Photo courtesy Jean Dowd.

Cedar Falls amassed 471.5 points to easily best Lewis Central (328) and Ft. Dodge (301.5) for top team honors. Linn-Mar (233) was fourth, followed by Carroll (230.5), Spencer (183), Sioux City Metro (159.5), Storm Lake (102), Perry (68) and Algona (52).

Perry was ninth in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. Vivian Gonzalez, Anna Ridnour, Dannah Karolus and Sarah Vaughn swam the former in 2 minutes, 16.88 seconds, with Ridnour, Karolus, Avery Miner and Breanna Penenger swimming the latter in 1:57.55.

Ridnour (21st, 2:25.35) and Miner (27th, 2:32.6) competed in the 200 free and Amanda Holwegner (29th, 30.26) and Shekynah Haworth (61st, 42.23) in the 50 free while Penenger (23rd, 43.97) swam the 200 individual medley.

Gonzalez was 25th in the 100 butterfly in 1:27.55, with Abby Herman 29th in the 100 free in 1:08.09 while Penenger touched 13th in the 500 free in 6:04 flat.

Perry finished fifth in the 400 freestyle relay at Fort Dodge Saturday. Swimming for the Jayettes were, clockwise from upper left, Dannah Karolus, Sarah Vaughn, Avery Miner and Breanna Penenger. Photo submitted.

Perry did not have swimmers compete in the finals of the 100 backstroke or 100 breaststroke.

The highlight of the meet for the Jayettes came in the final event, the 400 free relay. Vaughn, Miner, Karolus and Penenger finished in 4:22.5 to place fifth and earn the only podium spot for Perry at the meet.

Perry will join Des Moines Roosevelt for a double-dual at Des Moines Hoover tonight, then return to Des Moines Saturday to compete in the annual Polar Bear Invite at DM North. They will see their next home action Sept. 26 when they host both Newton and Oskaloosa at the MCB pool.