Barton swimming begins season in Iowa #GoBarton

Returning to the site where it all began one year ago in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the Barton swim teams opened up their second season with a double duel hosted by Iowa Central Community College.

The Cougar men placed eleven in the top three to score 417.3 points to place second behind the host Tritons' 457.2 points and well ahead of third place Iowa Lakes Community College's 344.8 points.

On the women's side, the Cougars with less than its full team available for the meet, had seven top-3 placings in scoring 368.6 points. Iowa Lakes captured the duel with 445.9 points while Iowa Central placed just ahead of Barton with 374.0 points.

William Spitz was the lone Cougar winner, as the sophomore from Texas clocked a 22.52 to win the 50 freestyle by .02 seconds and added a runner-up by .56 seconds in the 100 freestyle at 50.57. Spitz would also kick-start the 200 freestyle relay with a 22.36 leadoff 50 time as the squad would earn another of their four second place finishes as the other one would come in the 200 medley at 1:44.96 to best the Cougars' additional relay entry time of 1:47.14.

Romanian freshman Leonard-Andrei Olaru earned two placings on the day, touching the wall runner-up in the 200 freestyle (1:52.40) to go along with one of Barton's six third place finishes with a 56.39 in the 100 fly.

Other third place finishers were Gabriel Ozanne in the 200 free (1:56.66), David Garcia in the 100 free (51.57), Noah Childs in the 100 back (1:00.12), and Rory Smith leading a 3-5th Barton finish in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:04.50, ahead of Simon Botton's 1:05.82 and Sean Williams' 1:07.54.

The undermanned women's squad didn't garner any event winners but led the duel with five runner-ups to go along with two third place finishes.

Of the five runner-up finishes, three individuals earned silver with Cassandre Zenon in the 100 fly (1:04.83), Selena Howard in the 100 backstroke (1:09.12), and Elizabeth Schrock in the 100 breaststroke (1:14.16).

Barton's other two second places came in the relays with a 1:59.15 time in the 200 medley and a 1:58.66 in the 200 freestyle.

The Cougars two bronze medal placing came in the grueling 1000 freestyle with Caroline Noble clocking a 12:57.58 with Sara Childs' 1:12.94 earning third in the 100 backstroke.

Barton will next head to Fremont, Nebraska, for another duel on Saturday in taking on a pair of four-year schools in St. Mary's and host Midland University.