Beacon Sports
Burlington High School junior John Cottrell finished seventh last weekend in the 100-yard butterfly in the boys' state high school swim meet at the University of Iowa’s Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City.
In the preliminaries on Feb. 10, Cottrell qualified for the finals with a seventh-place finish in 51.32 seconds. The top 16 of the 32 swimmers advanced to the Feb. 11 finals. Cottrell’s time was a bit slower (52.04) in the finals, but he maintained his seventh-place position.
Ankeny’s Lance Swanepool won the event in 47.10 seconds.
Cottrell also qualified for the state meet in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard medley relay but didn’t reach the finals in either event. He finished 21st of 32 swimmers in 1:00.84 in the breaststroke preliminaries. Joshua Chen of Ames won that event in 55.42.
Burlington’s Aidan Woodsmall, Will Davidson, Cottrell, and Byers Nealey finished 19th of 24 teams in the medley relay, clocked at 1:42.55. Ames won in 1:33.24.
Keokuk’s Brendan Worster also picked up a seventh-place finish in the state. He qualified eighth in the preliminaries for the 100-yard backstroke in 51.82 seconds, then moved up to seventh with a 51.98 in the finals. Asher Havenhill of Waukee won in 49.20.
Worster also finished 13th of 32 swimmers in the 200-yard freestyle in both the preliminaries and finals. He was clocked at 1:45.38 on the first day and 1:45.60 in the finals. Jacob Pins of West Des Moines Valley won in 1:37.52.
Waukee won the team championship with 304 points. Valley was second at 214 and Ames came in third with 176 points. Keokuk was 18th with 16 points and Burlington was 22nd with 12 points.