Iowa Central claims six events to finish second

Iowa Central claims six events to finish second

DAVENPORT - Kyle McKenzie captured four individual titles as the Iowa Central men's and women's swim teams placed second here at the Midwest Championships hosted by St. Ambrose.

McKenzie touched first in the 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley, 200 breaststroke and 200 fly as part of 13 event winners for the Tritons.

The Iowa Central men racked up 798 points to finish second behind host St. Ambrose and ahead of Williams Baptist and Iowa Lakes. The Triton women had 581 points as St. Ambrose won that title as well. 

McKenzie went 1:56.30 in the 200 I.M. and 4:08.63 in the 400 I.M. The freshman had times of 2:06.00 in the breaststroke and 1:58.81 in the fly.

"Kyle's first meet two weeks ago was after two weeks of quarantine," Iowa Central head coach Joe Plane said. "We went pretty hard the past two weeks and Kyle responded well with some great performances. The 200 fly was special as it's not an event he specializes in."

Tjeerd Van Stein and Magali Mouton were both double winners. Van Stein was first in the 100 backstroke in 52.51 and won the 200 backstroke in 1:54.84; Mouton placed first in the 200 I.M. (2:21.31) and first in the 200 breaststroke (2:34.76). 

Andrew Iverson claimed the 1650 free in 17:12.53, Lexi Mast the 200 back in 2:18.22, Lily Wright the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.40 and Haley Snawerdt the 1650 free in 20:49.25.

Also, the 400 medley relay of Mast, Mouton, Wright and Snawerdt was first in 4:18.47.

"This was only our second meet of the season, and the first for 13 of our swimmers," Plane said. "Everyone stepped up and swam as well as they could. It was a great team effort."

McKenzie's time in the 200 breaststroke places him second in school history to go along with having the fourth-fastest 400 I.M. and eighth-best 200 fly. 

Wright is now ranked sixth in the 100 breaststroke, eighth in the 100 back (1:03.42) and eighth in the 50 breaststroke (33.16). Snawerdt is 10th in the 1650 after swimming it for the very first time. 

-By Dana Becker