MARSHALLTOWN – In his final meet after four years on the Cedar Rapids Washington varsity, Josh Hughes was not to be denied his first appearance on the top step of the awards platform at the state swimming championships.

Coming into Saturday’s competition at the Marshalltown YMCA, he was seeded second in both the 200 and 500-yard freestyle to freshman Aidan Keen of Iowa City West.

In last week’s blistering-fast district meet in Iowa City, Keen had beaten Hughes in each race with a couple of seconds to spare.

But that was before the Warrior senior had shaved his traditional Washington mop of bleached golden hair, shed the pantyhose worn in practice and tapered down to be at peak performance level with a state title on the line.

In the shorter of the two races held first on Saturday, Hughes dropped his best time in the 200 by nearly two seconds and left Keen in his wake.

But senior Ben Severino of Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines cut his own time by more than three seconds and was the upset winner with Hughes second.

For the 500 later on, he took no chances.

Hughes raced out ahead right from the start of 20-lap endurance test and by midway through was three lengths in front.

By dropping his time three seconds, he ended up winning by more than two seconds over surprising sixth-seed David Merriman West Des Moines Valley.

“Josh swam really strong today,” said Washington Coach Chris Cruise. “But he’s doing that all year.

“We lost two real good swimmers from last year in Ian Ford and Morgan Barnes. But, as a senior, Josh has really stepped up.”

The Johns Hopkins-bound pre-med student also helped add points to the Warriors’ team total swimming on the seventh-place 200-yard freestyle relay (won by Dubuque Senior in state record-setting time) and on the fourth-place 400 freestyle relay.

Entering the competition seeded second according to the state power ranking, Washington finished sixth with 111 points.

As expected, meet favorite Muscatine blew away the filed with 180 points to win its third straight state championship. The Muskies were followed by Dubuque Senior (147), Dowling (129), Johnston (125) and Valley (112).

Kennedy, led by Chandler Heisler's seventh-place finish in the 50 free, finished 12th. Linn-Mar tied for 17th and Jefferson tied for 23rd.

“Overall, I was real pleased with our performance,” Cruise said. “Almost everyone held their times or were very close.

“We spent a lot of energy last week at the districts to get as many swimmers as we could here to the dance. So we had to hold on for dear life.”

Some of the other teams that finished above them in the team standings, he noted, had easier district meets and could rest their swimmers.

“That’s the trade-off you sometimes have to face just to get here,” Cruise said.

Hughes, for one, said no one had predicted last year that the Warriors would have won their 50th consecutive district title easily this year and then finished in the top six in the state.

“We had an amazing district meet, and today was just awesome,” the team leader said. “I can tell you that nobody on this team is disappointed.

“We weren’t expected to do this well this season. But we’re Warriors, and we didn’t back down all year.”

Washington sophomore Jared Thorson finished fourth in the 100 butterfly and was on the fourth-place medley relay and both freestyle relays.

Washington was seeded first in the 400-yard freestyle with a state-best time this season of 3:12.63. And although the Warriors came in fourth, they dropped their time to 3:11.72 - just .36 of a second shy of a school record.

Dowling was seeded seventh but was an upset winner by dropping its previous best time of the year by almost six seconds.

STATE MEET
At Marshalltown YMCA

Team Standings
1. Muscatine 180
2. Dubuque Senior 147
3. WDM Dowling 129
4. Johnston 125
5. WDM Valley 112
6. CR Washington 111
7. Iowa City West 109
8. Lewis Central 100
9. Waukee 41
10. Cedar Falls 40

11. Dubuque Hempstead 29.5, 12. CR Kennedy 28, 13. Bettendorf 25, 14. DM Roosevelt 21, 15. Pleasant Valley 19, 16. Newton 17.5, 17. (tie) Linn-Mar and Ankeny 13, 19. Iowa City High 11, 20. Davenport Central 9

21. Ames 6, 22. Carroll 4, 23. (tie) CR Jefferson and DM Lincoln 3, 25. (tie) Marshalltown, Indianola and Waterloo West 2

FINALS

200 Medley Relay
1. Muscatine (Walton, Sovers, Greenwald, Krueger) 1:35.24
2. Johnston 1:35.40
3. Iowa City West 1:36.20
4. CR Washington (Saulnier, Kopec, Thorson, Durin) 1:37.35
5. Dubuque Senior 1:37.52
6. WDM Valley 1:37.57
7. Cedar Falls 1:38.36
8. Bettendorf 1:38.84
9. WDM Dowling 1:39.36
10. Linn-Mar (McNeal, N.Greve, Trenary, Arebaugh) 1:39.37
11. CR Kennedy (Richardson, Kitsos, Hanson, Moore) 1:39.90
12. Ankeny 1:40.57
23. Jefferson (Scallon, Hummell, Munson, Khorsand) 1:44.85

200 Freestyle
1. Ben Severino (WDM Dowl) 1:42.08
2. Josh Hughes (CRW) 1:43.69
3. Jack Scafuri (Waukee) 1:44.47
4. Aidan Keen (ICW) 1:45.30
5. Alex Clark (John) 1:45.55
6. Alex Bodin (WDM Val) 1:45.93
7. Alec Rutkowski (Hemp) 1:45.99
8. Mitch Schroeder (Dub Sr) 1:46.16
9. Harris Thompson (ICH) 1:46.57
10. Ryo Ueno (CRW) 1:46.64
11. Brian Burke (PV) 1:46.69
12. Chandler Cox (Ankeny) 1:46.92

200 Individual Medley
1. Haden Galegan (Musc) 1:51.28
2. Travis Greenwald (Musc) 1:51.68
3. Alex Walton (Musc) 1:55.02
4. Jordan Reinard (Waukee) 1:56.97
5. Justin Winnett (John) 1:57.21
6. Matt Anderson (ICW) 1:57.49
7. Jake Sund (CF) 1:58.20
8. Aaron Scheerer (Bett) 1:58.47
9. Jaden VanDike (WDM Val) 1:58.89
10. Nick Saulnier (CRW) 1:59.91
11. Nick Rafferty (WW) 2:00.67
12. Nick Staver (PV) 2:00.72
18. Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 2:03.65
23. Ian McElree (CRW) 2:05.99

50 Freestyle
1. Josh Gill (Dub Sr) 20.76
2. Jonathan Fiepke (WDM Dowl) 20.86
3. RJ Hemmingsen (Lew Cent) 21.26
4. Brandon Farnum (Lew Cent) 21.37
5. Alex Duster (Dub Sr) 21.38
6. Matheus Pinto (Newton) 21.53
7. Chandler Heisler (CRK) 21.75
8. Justin Arebaugh (LM) 21.89
9. Drake Kulick (Musc) 22.19
10. Matt Krueger (Musc) 22.36
11. Blair Van Staal (Marsh) 22.40
12. Nick Durin (CRW) 22.49
DH-14. Jakob Kehoe (CRW) 22.55
21. Harrison Moore (CRK) 22.76

100 Butterfly
1. RJ Hemmingsen (Lew Cent) 50.25
2. Max Ward (DM Roos) 51.31
3. Ben Severino (WDM Dowl) 51.65
4. Jared Thorson (CRW) 52.14
5. Reed Molander (John) 52.54
6. Sam Gorham (WDM Val) 52.55
7. Aaron Scheerer (Bett) 53.05
8. Matt Remy (PV) 53.91
9. Alex Paulsen (Carroll) 54.57
10. Mitchell Friend (DM Linc) 54.66
11. Michael Greenfield (WDM Dowl) 55.01
12. Duggan Trenary (LM) 55.02

100 Freestyle
1. Jonathan Fiepke (WDM Dowl) 44.76
2. Haden Calegan (Musc) 46.16
3. Mark McGlaughlin (ICW) 46.48
4. Brandon Farnum (Lew Cent) 46.81
5. Tyler Cracraft (John) 46.98
6. Alex Duster (Dub Sr) 47.48
7. Alex Bodin (WDM Val) 47.80
DH-8. Matheus Pinto (Newton) 48.04
DH-8. Alec Rutkowski (Hemp) 48.04
10. Chandler Heisler (CRK) 48.70
11. Brian Burke (PV) 48.96
12. Ryo Ueno (CRW) 49.04
13. Justin Arebaugh (LM) 49.05
15. Lance Scallon (CRJ) 49.50
21. Harrison Moore (CRK) 50.25
23. Sami Scheetz (CRW) 50.99
24. Jakob Kehoe (CRW) 51.08

500 Freestyle
1. Josh Hughes (CRW) 4:41.46
2. David Merriman (WDM Val) 4:43.93
3. Aidan Keen (ICW) 4:45.48
4. Ryan Price (Lew Cent) 4:46.54
5. Chandler Cox (Ankeny) 4:49.52
6. Mitch Schroeder (Dub Sr) 4:49.66
7. Harris Thompson (ICH) 4:49.68
8. Spencer Clark (WDM Dowl) 4:49.76
9. Nick Staver (PV) 4:50.92
10. Ben Colin (Dub Sr) 4:51.74
11. Alex Clark (John) 4:52.49
12. Jack Stecker (PV) 4:56.64

200 Freestyle Relay
1. Dubuque Senior (Gill, Duster, Daughters, Yuan) 1:23.99
2. Muscatine 1:24.29
3. WDM Dowling 1:26.45
4. Lewis Central 1:26.62
5. Johnston 1:27.06
6. WDM Valley 1:27.21
7. CR Washington (Kehoe, Durin, Thorson, Hughes) 1:27.90
8. Hempstead 1:28.22
9. CR Kennedy (Heisler, Urbi, Moore, Casey) 1:28.43
10. Ames 1:30.05
11. DM Roosevelt 1:30.16
12. Newton 1:30.62
13. Linn-Mar (N.Greve, Trenary, Ramsey, Arebaugh) 1:30.70
24. CR Jefferson (Scallon, Hummell, Munson, Khorsand) 1:33.03

100 Backstroke
1. Alex Walton (Musc) 50.34
2. Mark McGlaughlin (ICW) 52.39
3. Tyler Cracraft (John) 52.44
4. Connor Clements (CF) 52.95
5. Jack Scafuri (Waukee) 53.05
6. Luke Eure (Dav. Cent) 53.06
7. Caleb Shudak (Lew Cent) 53.16
8. Nick Saulnier (CRW) 53.48
9. Matt Remy (PV) 54.21
10. Lance Scallon (CRJ) 54.23
11. Sam Gorham (WDM Val) 54.30
12. David Ruzicka (WDM Dowl) 54.70
15. Dylan Casey (CRK) 55.46
17. John Richardson (CRK) 56.10
18. Calvin Greve (LM) 56.15
19. Kyle McNeal (LM) 56.20
20. Ian McElree (CRW) 56.22
23. Logan Barnes (CRW) 56.85

100 Breaststroke
1. Travis Greenwald (Musc) 56.46
2. Josh Gill (Dub Sr) 57.09
3. Jaden VanDike (WDM Val) 57.34
4. Justin Winnett (John) 57.56
5. Matt Anderson (ICW) 59.72
DH-6. Jake Sund (CF) 1:00.08
DH-6. Jordan Reinard (Waukee) 1:00.08
8. Michael Sovers (Musc) 1:00.28
9. Justin Yuan (Dub Sr) 1:00.66
10. Tanner Nelson (Bett) 1:01.07
11. Jonah Hatten (Indianola) 1:01.09
12. Nate Greve (LM) 1:01.35
15. John Kopec (CRW) 1:01.65
16. Nick Durin (CRW) 1:01.77
20. Sami Scheetz (CRW) 1:02.92
23. Stefan Kitsos (CRK) 1:03.46

400 Freestyle Relay
1. WDM Dowling (Severino, Clark, Carmody, Fiepke) 3:09.44
2. Dubuque Senior 3:09.52
3. Muscatine 3:11.14
4. CR Washington (Ueno, Thorson, Saulnier, Hughes) 3:11.72
5. WDM Valley 3:12.52
6. Iowa City West 3:13.01
7. Johnston 3:13.25
8. Lewis Central 3:13.72
9. Hempstead 3:16.11
10. CR Kennedy (Heisler, Richardson, Urbi, Casey) 3:17.16
11. DM Roosevelt 3:19.93
12. Newton 3:19.96
21. Linn-Mar (Starr, Trenary, Ramsey, McNeal) 3:24.32