Waukee Boys Swim Team Wins First State Title

The Waukee Boys Swim Team captured its first State Title on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA and became the fifteenth school to earn this honor.

The Warriors started off the meet by earning this year’s PowerPointBoysSwimmingFirstState Team Champion Trophy by setting the Iowa all-time high score of 2,002 power points at the District Swim Meet. No other team in the history of Iowa high school swimming has surpassed the two thousand mark before.

The total team effort soared past the fastest swimmers and the strong competition by having all seven qualifiers podium at least once during the meet. Senior Joshua Waltman became the boys’ first state individual champion winning the one hundred yard butterfly.

“The meet was a huge success because of the depth Waukee brought to the meet,” Coach Daniel Briggs said.

Waukee qualified swimmers in nine out of eleven events and placed in each of them. “Scoring was expanded to sixteen places this year and with all of the qualifiers, Waukee took full advantage of the opportunities to score points in each of these events,” Briggs said.

This year’s state team swimmers included sophomore Cameron Briggs, juniors Jackson Kuhlers, Zach Linder, Gustav Muenzenmay and Graydon Rogers and seniors Josh Waltman and Brett Shaw.

To top off the meet, Head Coach Dan Briggs and Assistant Coach Cass Zorn earned the Iowa High School Swim Coaches Association (IHSSCA) Coaches of the Year Award. It was an outstanding year for the Warriors with an undefeated dual meet season, a CIML Conference Meet Title, District Meet Champions and State Champions.

Congratulations to the entire team for their hard work and dedication to the level of success experienced by this year’s squad. This year’s “Dream Team,” became a dream come true! Way to go Warriors!

State Meet Recap in order of events:

  • Medley Relay: Cameron Briggs, Grady Rogers, Gus Muenzenmay, Josh Waltman 1:34.54-NEW SCHOOL RECORD (3rd Place-2nd Team All State, All American Consideration)
  • 200 IM: Jackson Kuhlers (4th Place-1:55.95, 2nd Team All State)-NEW SCHOOL RECORD, Brett Shaw (5th Place-1:56.18-2nd Team All State), Cameron Briggs (15th Place-2:00.63)
  • 50 Free: Josh Waltman (3rd Place-:20.98, 2nd Team All State, All American Consideration) NEW SCHOOL RECORD
  • 100 Fly: Josh Waltman (Champion-:50.01, 1st Team All State, All American Consideration) NEW SCHOOL RECORD, Jackson Kuhlers (5th :50.87, 2nd Team All State), Gus Muenzenmay (7th-:51.45)
  • 100 Free: Zach Linder (5th Place-:46.79, 2nd Team All State) NEW SCHOOL RECORD, Grady Rogers (21st-:49.52)
  • 200 Free Relay: Zach Linder, Brett Shaw, Josh Waltman, Jackson Kuhlers 1:24.73-NEW SCHOOL RECORD (Runner Up-1st Team All State, Automatic All American)
  • 100 Back: Brett Shaw (4th Place :52.10, 2nd Team All State) NEW SCHOOL RECORD, Cameron Briggs (8th-:53.34)
  • 100 Breast: Zach Linder (10th-1:00.15), Grady Rogers (11th-1:00.26), Gus Muenzenmay (15th-1:01.09)
  • 400 Free Relay: Zach Linder, Brett Shaw, Gus Muenzenmay, Jackson Kuhlers 3:08.59-NEW SCHOOL RECORD (4th Place-2nd Team All State, All American Consideration)