The Laker Men had a better than expected meet with nearly every swim a season best and many were lifetime bests. The relay times, in particular, far exceeded team goals for the meet. Since Iowa Lakes will be competing at Rochester in two weeks, this meet was used as a practice meet for that upcoming meet. All the other teams at the Augustana Invite were using this meet as their end of semester taper meet, with swimmers rested and wearing fast suits. Laker swimmers on the blocks stood out as they were the only ones wearing regular meet suits. When the Lakers hit the water, their performances were anything but normal. Let's take a look at the men's performances one athlete at a time.
Jacob Bohnert had one of the best swims of the weekend for the Lakers with his near lifetime best 21.43 in the 50 free. That time ranks him near the top of the NJCAA. Bohnert had lifetime best swims in the 100 back 54.13 and 200 Back 2:00.94 and his 50 and 100 back and 100 free relay splits were all just tenths of a second off his lifetime best. Bohnert was excited to see fast times before he starts resting and is confident about the upcoming Rochester meet.
Juan Briseno had a lifetime best in the 100 IM and was just off his best in the 100 breaststroke. Briseno had solid relay splits in all five relays and continues to improve greatly with every meet.
Ben Hehr started the meet with a false start in the 500 free and then made up for it with three lifetime bests in the 400 IM, 200 back, and 1650. In the 400 IM and 200 Back, Hehr made improvements from prelims to finals as he grew more confident in both of those events.
Jesse Lattin had huge drops in the 500 and 200 freestyles and 200 backstroke. Lattin made additional improvements in all his events from prelims to finals and had big time drops in all five of his relay events. All of Lattin's events were lifetime bests. "Jesse finally had a breakthrough meet this weekend. He was working through an injury for a few weeks and he really bounced back. I think part of it was him finally adapting from swimming long course meters to yards. You could see him finding his stroke rhythm between the turns for the first time this year," noted Head Coach Todd Peters.
Sophomore Garrett Nielson branched out into some additional events, swimming the 100 IM and 50 and 100 breaststroke on the medley relays. Although he disqualified in the 100 breaststroke, he learned from the mistake and made the needed correction on the relays and had great swims. Nielson's 100 IM in finals was his best event of the meet and showed this could be a great national event for him.
Val Trussov found success not only in his main event of 100 butterfly, but also in the 400 and 100 IM's. Coach Peters talked about Trussov's search this year for different events, "Val and I have talked a lot about what else he can swim at the National meet and we have both had to come to the table with open minds because his experience outside of fly are quite limited. I've been encouraging him in the IM's and I have to give him credit because he was really aggressive this weekend and listened to my suggestions, especially from prelims to finals. Val made great adjustments and it really paid off."
Randy Vaughan had one of the best meets of his career with near lifetime bests in every event and he knew he was doing it in a near exhausted training state. Vaughan showed his versatility throughout the meet swimming the 100 IM, 50, 100 and 200 freestyles, and breaststroke on both medley relays.
Patrick Voller continues to excel in competition with season bests in nearly every event, which is something the team has come to expect from him. One of the surprise swims of the day was Voller's 100 IM where he had two lifetime bests on the day.