IOWA CITY – The last time the Cedar Rapids Washington boys did not win the district swimming championship John F. Kennedy was the President, a first class stamp had just been raised a penny to five cents and the Beatles were still an unknown British bar band.

They’ve captured the title for 50 years straight since 1964, capping the milestone Saturday afternoon with a decisive 114-point victory at the Mercer Park Aquatic Center.

“It’s quite an accomplishment,” said Warrior Coach Chris Cruise, who swam on four on those teams as a record-holder in the breaststroke and now has coached 15 of them. “And I’m just tickled to death for these kids. They swam an absolutely fantastic meet today.

“Each one of them came in with goals they wanted to meet. Not many missed them. And if they did, their times were off only by a very, very  small margin.”

With the sixth highest power ranking in the state, Washington was the favorite in the seven-team field with Iowa City West and Cedar Rapids Kennedy expected to pose the closest challenge.

The Warriors ended up blowing both of them away with their superior depth, racking up 327 team points to 213 for West and 206 for the Cougars.

“West has got some high-end swimmers but is not as deep as Kennedy,” Cruise noted. “We’re somewhere in the middle. We have a nice balance.”

He and his group of assistants (Megan Lewis Randy Burr, Matt Sinnott, Jeff Henry and Chris Tyler) were named district coaching staff of the year.

Kennedy senior Chandler Heisler, who won the 50-yard freestyle and finished second in the 100, was selected as the meet’s outstanding swimmer.

Making the most of a trio of top young swimmers, the Trojans of West High won seven of 11 events but didn’t score enough other points to overtake the Warriors.

Washington claimed one individual title holder with sophomore Jared Thorson in the 100-yard butterfly and wins in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Thorson, who was also on both winning relay teams, set a Washington sophomore school record in the butterfly by dropping his personal best time by almost two seconds.

“I was real happy with my time in the butterfly,” said Thorson. “But I was really, really happy when we won the 400 relay.”

Up against the freshman and sophomore sprinters from West, Washington senior foreign exchange student Ryo Ueno took a slight lead while Thorson and freshman Nick Saulnier maintained the slim margin.

Swimming anchor, Warrior senior Josh Hughes barely out-touched Trojan frosh phenom Aiden Keen by two-tenths of a second for the victory.

“Josh swam really, really fast,” Thorson said.

Hughes swam third ahead of Thorson’s anchor in the victorious 200-yard relay as well as coming in second to Keen in both the individual 200-yard freestyle and the 500.

The 200-yard relay was even closer than the 400 with Washington nipping Cedar Rapids Kennedy by .01 of a second.

“Winning by those two touches was great,” Hughes said.  “And overall, I’ve never seen a team perform any better than we did today. Everyone swam their best times or close to it.

“I’ve been following Wash swimming from a distance since I was in the seventh grade. And no team has done any better than we did today, including the 2008 state champions.”

One big surprise was Washington senior John Kopec, who finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke while racing in the next-to-last heat ahead of swimmers with faster qualifying times. He took more than four seconds off his best time.

“I was a little (surprised),” said Kopec. “I missed going to state last year by .32 of a second. I was just into my zone today and swam my very best ever.”

Equally thrilled with going to the state meet next Saturday at at the Marshalltown YMCA was exchange student Ueno, who showed up for the swimming this fall without anyone knowing how fast he was.  Besides being on the winning 400-yard relay team, he finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle and sixth in the 100.

“This is very exciting for me,” he said. “I’m very happy to be with my teammates for this 50th anniversary. I’m glad I came here. It is amazing.”

Ueno, who had no times to provide when he joined the Warrior team for the season’s first practice, said he has been motivated all year by competing in the freestyle events with his good friend Hughes.

“I don’t want to lose to Josh,” he said with his customary wide smile. “But I lose anyway.”

In staking its 50th district title in a row, Washington adds to another streak of having lost only once since the school opened in 1956.  Under legendary coach Hal Krizan, it won for the first six years, then lost it in 1963. The string continued under the yet another legendary coach Jim Voss and now with former all-state swimmer Cruise at the helm.

Over that period, the Warriors have also won 27 state championships.

“It’s an absolutely awesome record,” said longtime Wash Principal Ralph Plagman, who has been at the school for 32 years.  “Over a half century, teams have gone against schools from Iowa City, Waterloo, Dubuque and others. And each time they’ve come out on top.

“Each of the coaches and each team has just picked it up and gone on to win. It’s really a remarkable story.”

IHSAA DISTRICT MEET
At Iowa City
(Mercer Aquatics Center)

Team scores
1. Washington (CRW) 327, 2. Iowa City West (ICW) 213, 3. Kennedy (CRK) 206, 4. Linn-Mar (LM) 172, 5. Iowa City High (ICH) 159, 6. Jefferson (CRJ) 77, 7. Ottumwa (Ott) 44

Finals
(* - Unofficial state meet qualifiers)

200 Medley Relay
1. *Iowa City West (Mark McGlaughlin, Matt Anderson, Carson Miller, Aidan Keen) 1:37.26
2. *Washington (Nick Saulnier, John Kopec, Jared Thorson, Nick Durin) 1:37.41
3. *Linn-Mar (Kyle McNeal, Nate Greve, Duggan Trenary, Matthew Ramsey) 1:39.86
4. *Kennedy (John Richardson, Stefan Kitsos, Andy Hanson, Harrison Moore) 1:40.11
5. *Iowa City High 1:43.26
6. *Jefferson (Lance Scallon, Luke Hummell, Michael Munson, Zach Khorsand) 1:44.66

200 Freestyle
1. *Aidan Keen (ICW) 1:43.13
2. *Josh Hughes (CRW) 1:45.05
3. *Harris Thompson (ICH) 1:45.62
4. *Ryo Ueno (CRW) 1:46.20
5. Dylan Casey (CRK) 1:50.97
6. Eric Roush (CRW) 1:52.39

200 IM
1. *Matt Anderson (ICW) 1:59.22
2. *Nick Saulnier (CRW) 2:00.51
3. *Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 2:02.08
4. *Andrew Parr (ICH) 2:04.09
5. *Carson Miller (ICW) 2:05.07
6. *Ian McElree (CRW) 2:06.15

50 Free
1. *Chandler Heisler (CRK) 21.67
2. *Justin Arebaugh (LM) 21.86
DH-3. *Jakob Kehoe (CRW) 22.23
DH-3. *Nick Durin (CRW) 22.23
5. *Harrison Moore (CRK) 22.35
6. *Ike Eyman Casey (ICH) 22.36

100 Butterfly
1. *Jared Thorson (CRW) 51.83
2. *Duggan Trenary (LM) 54.80
3. *Grant Gullion (Ott) 55.98
4. Logan Barnes (CRW) 56.22
5. Matt Jackson (CRW) 56.23
6. Zach Hendricks (LM) 56.29

100 Free
1. *Mark McGlaughlin (ICW) 47.13
2. *Chandler Heisler (CRK) 48.69
3. *Lance Scallon (CRJ) 48.79
4. *Justin Arebaugh (LM) 48.81
5. *Ike Eyman Casey (ICH) 49.00
6. *Ryo Ueno (CRW) 49.53
7. *Jakob Kehoe (CRW) 49.68
8. *Harrison Moore (CRK) 49.88
9. *Sami Scheetz (CRW) 50.01

500 Free
1. *Aidan Keen (ICW) 4:41.96
2. *Josh Hughes (CRW) 4:44.85
3. *Harris Thompson (ICH) 4:45.46
4. Eric Roush (CRW) 5:06.06
5. Jack Green (CRK) 5:09.54
6. Matteo Tormene (CRW) 5:10.21

200 Free Relay
1. *Washington (Jakob Kehoe, Nick Durin, Josh Hughes, Jared Thorson) 1:28.11
2. *Kennedy (Harrison Moore, Brennan Urbi, Chandler Heisler, Dylan Casey) 1:28.12
3. *Linn-Mar (Nate Greve, Duggan Trenary, Matthew Ramsey, Justin Arebaugh) 1:30.51
4. *Iowa City West 1:31.98
5. *Jefferson (Luke Hummell, Zach Khorsand, Michael Munson, Lance Scallon) 1:32.24
6. Iowa City High 1:32.97

100 Backstroke
1. *Mark McGlaughlin (ICW) 53.05
2. *Nick Saulnier (CRW) 53.61
3. *Lance Scallon (CRJ) 54.75
4. *Andrew Parr (ICH) 54.90
5. *Kyle McNeal (LM) 55.59
6. *John Richardson (CRK) 55.61
7. *Dylan Casey (CRK) 56.06
8. *Ian McElree (CRW) 56.11
9. *Calvin Greve (LM) 56.25
10. *Logan Barnes (CRW) 56.26

100 Breaststroke
1. *Matt Anderson (ICW) 59.87
2. *John Kopec (CRW) 1:01.08
3. *Nate Greve (LM) 1:01.26
4. *Nick Durin (CRW) 1:01.36
5. *Sami Scheetz (CRW) 1:02.11
6. *Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 1:02.69

400 Free Relay
1. *Washington (Ryo Ueno, Jared Thorson, Nick Saulnier, Josh Hughes) 3:12.63
2. *Iowa City West 3:12.83
3. *Kennedy (Chandler Heisler, John Richardson, Brennan Urbi, Dylan Casey) 3:16.66
4. *Iowa City High 3:21.92
5. *Linn-Mar (Justin Arebaugh, Matthew Ramsey, Carter Starr, Nate Greve) 3:24.22
6. Ottumwa 3:31.40