Aaron Seberger

WAUKEE — With a week between meets, the Marshalltown boys’ swimming team got in plenty of training prior to Thursday’s CIML Iowa Conference finale at No. 2 Waukee.

Swimming tired, the No. 13 Bobcats dropped time throughout their lineup but still came up short against the host Warriors.

Waukee won 10 of 11 events and handed Marshalltown its second-consecutive loss, beating the Bobcats 122-48 two days before the CIML Iowa Conference meet at Fort Dodge.

MHS sophomore Aaron Seberger saved the Bobcats from the meet sweep, scoring first place in the 50-yard freestyle thanks to a near-season-best clocking of 22.89 seconds.

In all, Marshalltown (9-2, 3-2) registered 36 season-best times and 16 lifetime-bests, but Waukee still had a leg up.

“The score is probably not indicative of how well we swam,” said MHS head coach Mike Loupee. “Our varsity guys have been swimming 11-12,000 yards a day and they are beat down, and we still had 36 season-bests and 16 LTBs. So I am pleased with our effort and where we’re at at this point.”

Marshalltown saw a drastic time drop from its 200-yard freestyle relay foursome of Seberger, Marcus Barker, Nash Perisho and Carson Beals, who cut more than a second in finishing second with a season-best time of 1:30.39. Waukee’s winning quartet won in 1:30.33 — just six-hundredths of a second ahead of the Bobcats.

Waukee’s time climbed the Warriors to the seventh-fastest in the state this winter, while Marshalltown now stands eighth.

“The swim of the night was the 200 free relay,” Loupee commended. “We dropped more time and had some good exchanges, and Carson Beals had a sub-22-second split. Carson also swam a personal-best in the 100 free, so he’s swimming well tired.”

Beals and Perisho went 2-3 behind Waukee’s Drew Reiter in the 200 freestyle, including a season-best 1:51.52 for Beals. Perisho was third again in the 100 butterfly, with his 55.82 coming in just shy of his best time this season (55.53).

Stephen Blom, a sophomore, scored second place in the 500 freestyle, and Beals was runner-up in the 100 freestyle.

Seberger’s fourth-place time of 59.90 in the 100 backstroke was a benchmark Loupee was happy to see his sophomore hit before the postseason.

“Breaking that minute barrier before taper is big, so he had a good night,” Loupee said.

No. 2 Waukee, No. 9 Valley and No. 13 Marshalltown are the top-seeded teams for Saturday’s CIML Iowa Conference meet at Fort Dodge, which is scheduled to start at noon.

Waukee 122, Marshalltown 48

At Waukee

EVENT RESULTS

(Champion plus MHS placewinners)

200 MEDLEY RELAY — 1. Waukee (Gustafson, Whitaker, Weaver, Rogers) 1:44.57; 4. MHS (Seberger, Keeler, Blom, Benscoter) 1:49.24.

200 FREESTYLE — 1. Drew Reiter, WAU, 1:46.62; 2. Carson Beals, MHS, 1:51.52; 3. Nash Perisho, MHS, 1:52.07.

200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY — 1. AJ Abram, WAU, 2:02.71; 4. Marcus Barker, MHS, 2:10.05; 5. Stephen Blom, MHS, 2:18.66.

50 FREESTYLE — 1. Aaron Seberger, MHS, 22.89; 4. Ethan Benscoter, MHS, 24.03.

100 BUTTERFLY — 1. Cameron Linder, WAU, 54.78; 3. Perisho, MHS, 55.82; 5. Brock Keeler, MHS, 1:00.51.

100 FREESTYLE — 1. Reiter, WAU, 48.50; 2. Beals, MHS, 49.41; 5. Benscoter, MHS, 52.60.

500 FREESTYLE — 1. Abram, WAU, 4:57.37; 2. Blom, MHS, 5:25.59; 5. Tyler Downey, MHS, 5:38.08.

200 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1 Waukee (Reiter, Rogers, Havenhill, Abram) 1:30.33; 2. MHS (Seberger, Barker, Perisho, Beals) 1:30.39.

100 BACKSTROKE — 1. Taylor Hughes, WAU, 58.77; 4. Seberger, MHS, 59.90; 5. Dane Petty, MHS, 1:02.01.

100 BREASTSTROKE — 1. Linder, WAU, 59.84; 4. Barker, MHS, 1:07.58; 5. Keeler, MHS, 1:11.68.

400 FREESTYLE RELAY — 1. Waukee (Abram, Davey, Havenhill, Reiter) 3:20.37; 2. MHS (Perisho, Downey, Barker, Beals) 3:31.06.