The Bobcat foursome of Michael Lechnir, Kade Randall, Charles Gilbertson and Lincoln Barker earned the team’s fifth event victory of the day, securing first place in the final team standings with their winning time of 3 minutes, 30.96 seconds.

Marshalltown amassed 79 points to hold off Cedar Rapids Kennedy (75), which placed third in the closing race to seal the final standings. Newton (54), Spencer (44) and Atlantic (33) rounded out the competition.

MHS trailed Kennedy by two points entering the final event and needed to at least finish ahead of the Cougars to win or tie for the team title. The Bobcats got season-best splits from three of four swimmers to win the race, holding off Newton’s standout sophomore Finn Martin on the anchor leg to earn the title.

“We had pretty high confidence in the four guys that were in the relay,” said MHS head coach Mike Loupee. “People throw the word ‘elite’ around, but that Martin kid is elite. He is the real deal.

“But Lincoln is a gamer, Michael Lechnir is highly competitive and Charlie Gilbertson will do anything you ask him to do. He loves swimming so much and he really enjoys the excitement of things like that relay. Once we got to Charlie and he was extending the lead, I was pretty OK with where we were going to be for Lincoln.”

The Bobcats’ final four swimmers were part of all five event victories for Marshalltown. MHS opened the day with a triumph in the 200-yard medley relay, as Lechnir, Sam Greazel, Gilbertson and Barker touched the wall first in 1:46.75.

Gilbertson and Greazel got first place by a comfortable margin in the 2×200-yard medley relay, winning in 4:30.91. Lechnir and Gilbertson teamed up for first in the 2×100 freestyle relay (1:45.56), and the 2×500 duo of Randall and Barker battled for a relatively narrow victory. Randall and Barker won in 10:56.24, while Newton’s pair of Martin and Mack Copeland claimed second in 11:03.89.

When the Bobcats made the exchange in the 2×500, Martin had staked Newton to a 60-yard lead. Barker gradually eliminated the deficit and passed Copeland for a pivotal victory.

“That was the race of the day,” Loupee said. “That’s what makes these two-man relay meets exciting is the big changes in leads. Lincoln swam his season-best by probably 10 seconds. You could tell he wanted to run that kid down and win that race. He hit the water like he wasn’t going to be denied. It had the whole crowd going wild.”

The Bobcats finished fourth, third and second in the next three events, scoring key points along the way before closing the meet with a much-needed win in the 400 freestyle relay.