PHOTO COURTESY TROY HYDE/NEWTON NEWS - Marshalltown junior Jacob Seberger cuts through the water during the 100-yard breaststroke on his way to a state-qualifying time of 1 minute, 2.34 seconds, during Saturday’s district meet at Ames High School.

AMES — The Marshalltown boys’ swimming squad had a perfect day at its district meet on Saturday.

That’s not to say the Bobcats qualified everything for state, but they couldn’t have done much more to enhance their hopes.

Every Bobcat swimmers to hit the water on Saturday at Ames High School swam their season-best times, marking a success for first-year head coach Raymond Dulaney.

Taking that a step further, Bobcat junior Jacob Seberger is indeed going to state.

Seberger qualified with one of the top 32 individual times statewide in two events and will swim in the IHSAA State Swimming Championships on Friday, Feb. 13, at the University of Iowa.

Seberger will swim in Friday’s preliminary races in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 breaststroke after finishing seventh in both events at Saturday’s district meet.

“I am unbelievably proud of how our team swam [Saturday],” said Dulaney. “One of our biggest goals as a team is to have our best swims at our championship meets. This is a big ask for everyone to be their best on one given day. We had 100 percent season-best swims and all but two lifetime bests. This is full credit to how the boys have worked all season and the preparation they gave this meet.”

Marshalltown’s top finish in the district meet was fifth, achieved by a pair of relays, while Thomas Stanley scored the Bobcats’ best individual achievement by claiming sixth in the 500 freestyle. Stanley clocked in with a time of 5 minutes, 16.01 seconds, which as aforementioned was a season-best.

Seberger earned a state meet bid with his time of 22.27 seconds in the 50 freestyle, and he did it again in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.34.

“One of our other big goals is to have representation at the state meet,” said Dulaney. “Jacob Seberger executed his races well and made the top-32 cut in the 50 free and 100 breast.”

The Bobcats narrowly missed out on another event for state. The 200 freestyle relay team of Seberger, Parker Christen, Eli Randall and Kade Randall finished sixth on Saturday with a time of 1:32.21, which was just five-hundredths of a second shy of the final qualifying time to make the field of 24 relays at state.

“I am gutted for the other three members of the 200 free relay,” Dulaney said. “They gave everything they had to qualify and just missed.”

Marshalltown’s 200 medley relay team of Aaron Hunter, Christen, Seberger and Jackson Nelson took fifth in the first event of the meet in 1:45.61, and the 400 free relay team of Eli Randall, Nelson, Joe Greazel and Kade Randall came in fifth in 3:30.26.

Kade Randall collected seventh in the 200 individual medley (2:07.62), and Eli Randall finished seventh in the 100 butterfly in 58.92. Aaron Hunter led the Bobcats in the 100 backstroke with 11th place in 1:05.13, and Stanley led the ‘Cats with 11th in the 200 freestyle (1:58.83). Joe Greazel led paced MHS in the 100 freestyle in 52.59, coming in 13th.

As a team, the Bobcats finished fifth out of eight competitors with 211 points. Dowling Catholic captured the team title with 437 points, followed by Boone (344), Ames (293), Carroll (252), Marshalltown, Newton (200), Des Moines Hoover (101) and Des Moines East (88).

“I am extremely proud of how this group approached this season and pleased with the results they experienced on Saturday,” Dulaney said.