Sports : Viking continue to improve, split with Waterloo East, Decorah

     Last week saw another solid performance by the Vikings as they split a dual with Decorah and Waterloo East.  Down one of our key performers, we were able to hold off Waterloo East 93-76 while falling to a very talented Decorah squad 106-64.  We had three more event wins.  Once again, Brandon Tharp won the 100 Breast and John Levis captured first in the 500 Free.  Levis also finished first in the 200 Free by more than four seconds but was disqualified for raising his head on the block prior to the starter’s signal.  The 200 Free Relay team of Tharp, Matt Pettengill, Josh Yerkes and Levis finished first in a very tight heat; a mere 2.5 seconds separating the top three teams.  There were another four events where we finished second; two individual events and the other two relays. 

     Perhaps more exciting than the win, was the fact that the team continued its strong improvement, with yet another 18 new personal best times last night.  We had some huge time drops led by Ben Stainbrook who cut more than four seconds off his 100 Fly time to finish a close second in his event.  Drake Tilson dropped more than 22 seconds off of his best 500 free time.  Andy Newcomb and Nick Gardner showed great improvements in the 100 free taking off seven and four seconds respectively. 

Our next meet is tonight at Grinnell at 6PM.  

200 Medley Relay          A          2nd        1:59.15             Sean Dulin, Brandon Tharp, Josh Yerkes, Wes Lyons

                                    B          5th         2:18.38             Nick Gardner, Alvin Long, Ben Stainbrook, Tyler Naughton 

200 Free                       5th         Drake Tilson      2:39.05

200 Individual Medley     2nd        Brandon Tharp                2:22.26

                                    3rd         Matt Pettengill               2:33.15

                                    8th         Alvin Long                     3:34.12

50 Free                         5th         Wes Lyons                   25.14

                                    8th         Tyler Naughton              31.36

                                    9th         Andy Newcomb             35.97

100 Butterfly                  2nd        Ben Stainbrook              1:09.23

4th         Josh Yerkes                  1:20.18

100 Free                       3rd         Matt Pettengill                  57.26

                                    5th         Sean Dulin                    1:01.81

8th         Nick Gardner                 1:09.20                               

500 Free                       1st         John Levis         5:39.26

                                    6th         Drake Tilson      7:14.95

200 Free Relay A           1st         1:43.63             Tharp, Pettengill, Yerkes, Levis

                                    4th         1:53.95             Stainbrook, Lyons, Long, Dulin

100 Back                      6th         Sean Dulin                    1:17.64

                                    7th         Tyler Naughton              1:34.47

100 Breast                    1st         Brandon Tharp        1:08.98       

6th         Alvin Long              1:27.80

7th         Wes Lyons            1:29.03

400 Free Relay  A          2nd        4:00.42             Levis, Stainbrook, Yerkes, Pettengill

B          4th         5:03.52             Gardner, Newcomb, Tilson, Naughton