Sports : Stormin' Viking's Senior Night brings a win

Tuesday night provided another big night for the Stormin' Viking Swim Program as they recognized the past and the present on Senior Night at the Braille School pool. Facing WaMaC foe Wiliamsburg, the home team came out with a convincing 59-35 victory. On the night the Vikes won 7 of 11 events, taking command of the meet early and never letting up. The night opened with the senior-heavy Medley Relay of Bradyn Schlief, Carter Kirtz, Ian Allsup and Logan Zearley capturing first over a very good Williamsburg relay team. The Vikes won three of the four events prior to the first break with Kirtz claiming the 160 IM and Allsup the 60 Free. During the middle portion of the meet, the team again won 3 of 4 events with Sclief taking the 100, Allsup the 500 and the 200 Free Relay of Schlief, Ian Vrba, Kirtz and Allsup. Kirtz also won the 100 Breast.

Other notable performances on the night included Aleric Weber with a personal best in the 100 Back for second place. The Farrell brothers, Wesley and Broden, took 2nd and 3rd in the 200 Free with personal best times. Broden Farrell also set a new best swimming the 500 free, breaking the six-minute mark for the first time. Vrba had a personal best in the 100 Breast to finish second. And first-year swimmer Hunter Kempton did a superb job swimming his first-ever 100 Butterfly - a very physically demanding event.

During the first break, the team recognized its strong senior class of Kirtz, Schlief and Zearley. These three have been a core part of the team for the past several years as were instrumental in the win over the Raiders.

The team also took a moment at the first break to look back on the past and honor its roots as a program. Ten days ago Carter Kirtz broke the 200 Free record of Mike Dake that had stood for 35 years. When a record is broken, we like to honor the previous record-holder by giving them their plate off the record board. Unfortunately, Mike Dake passed away nearly five years ago but the team was able to honor him with a plaque and flowers that were presented to his mother Anne by Kitz and Mike's former teammate and friend, Mayor Bud Maynard.

The team now will lock back in on a few more days of hard practicing before a meet next Tuesday at Cedar Rapids Washington. After that will start the tapering process for Conference on January 29th at Grinnell and Districts on February 5th at Linn-Mar.