Sports : Viking swimmers lose close home dual vs. Decorah

Sean Dulin competed in several events for the Vikings.

John Levis leaps into the water as Rico Caniero finishes his leg of the 160 free relay.

Ben Stainbrook (right) and Rico Carneiro (third lane) prepare to begin a race.

The swim meet includes several relays.

The Vikings hosted Decorah Tuesday, Jan. 25, in the IBSSS pool.

A V-S swimmer competes in lane 4.

Alvin Long completes his leg and Andy Newcomb begins his during a relay vs. Decorah in Vinton.

Drake Tilson competes in the 200 Free in the Vikings home meet vs. Decorah.

Drake Tilson and others begin the 200 free event.

With few high schools having swim teams, the Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings find themselves competing against the same swimmers several times throughout the season. Tuesday night, the Vikings hosted a home meet at the Iowa Braille School gym, where they again swam against the Decorah Vikings.

Coach Rob Levis submitted the following summary of the contest:

Despite a full house of supporters and their best performance of the year, the Vikings swimmers were unable to overcome a tough Decorah team last night at the IBSSS pool. The final was Decorah 55 Vinton 39. The Vikes entered the final relay down by only nine with a chance to win if they could capture first and second in the 400 Free Relay. This was an event that Decorah had defeated Vinton-Shellsburg by four to six seconds the past several meetings between the two squads. Decorah rallied at the end to edge the Vikings by 0.16 seconds to finished first and clinch the meet win.

Despite the loss, it was quite impressive to see the way the guys elevated their performance at this meet. Across the entire line-up, nearly everyone swam faster than a week ago in the big win over Waterloo East. They were really fired up for this meet and their times showed it. A number of guys swim significantly faster than they had in the past, defeating Decorah swimmers who had been finishing ahead of them throughout the year. Matt Pettengill and Rico Carneiro were two and a half and two seconds faster respectively than last week in the Individual Medley. John Levis dropped 6 seconds in the 200 Free and a second off his 100 Free. Wes Lyons was nearly two seconds faster in the 100 Free. The 200 and 400 free relay teams, both A and B, improved significantly as they met the challenge of a tough Decorah squad. Swimming at home in front of their families and friends made a significant difference. The team is very grateful to everyone that turned out to support.

The next meet will be the District Meet on Saturday, February 5th at CR Washington High School beginning at 12:30. The Vikings’ district this year consists of CR Washington, Jefferson and Kennedy, Linn-Mar and Iowa City High and West High Schools. It is perhaps the toughest district in the State but the Vikes are looking forward to the chance to compete against the best.

160 Medley Relay A 2nd 1:32.63 Sean Dulin, Matt Pettengill, Josh Yerkes, Wes Lyons

B 4th 1:42.85 Nick Gardner, Alvin Long, Ben Stainbrook, Tyler Naughton

200 Free 1st John Levis 1:56.50

4th Drake Tilson 2:37.05

160 Individual Medley 2nd Rico Carneiro 1:49.92

3rd Matt Pettengill 1:53.92

JV-3rd Alvin Long 2:30.15

60 Free 2nd Brandon Tharp 29.94

3rd Sean Dulin 32.06

JV-2nd Tyler Naughton 38.22

JV-3rd Andy Newcomb 39.09

100 Butterfly 2nd Ben Stainbrook 1:09.41

3rd Josh Yerkes 1:13.82

100 Free 1st John Levis 52.00

4th Wes Lyons 1:04.84

JV-2nd Nick Gardner 1:11.03

500 Free 3rd Sean Dulin 6:44.16

4th Drake Tilson 7:19.02

160 Free Relay A 1st 1:16.46 Carneiro, Levis, Pettengill, Tharp

B 3rd 1:25.30 Stainbrook, Yerkes, Lyons, Dulin

100 Back 3rd Rico Carneiro 1:04.34

4th Nick Gardner 1:21.78

JV-3rd Tyler Naughton 1:25.78

JV-4th Andy Newcomb 1:27.41

100 Breast 1st Brandon Tharp 1:06.97

4th Alvin Long 1:25.09

320 Free Relay A 2nd 2:49.47 Levis, Pettengill, Carneiro, Tharp

B 4th 3:19.77 Stainbrook, Tilson, Lyons, Yerkes