Marcussen expects strong Tiger showing at District meet

Ali Miller/Staff Writer

CFHS men’s swimming head coach Dick Marcussen has some high expectations for his boys at the upcoming district swim meet. The six strongest swimmers that Marcussen is banking on will likely be senior Garrett Moses; juniors Jon Baker, Austin Abbas, Taylor Burkes and Josh Sund; and freshman Connor Clements.

To prepare the boys, Marcussen will cut down the yardage that they swim at practice. “Its all about rest, and at practice, it’s quality over yardage,” Marcussen said.

Tapering is the process of slowing down and doing less at practice than usual, in an effort to rest athletes and get them ready for big events at the end of the season. Marcussen plans to employ this age-old strategy to rest his team before crunch time in the next few weeks.

Iowa City will be the biggest competition for Marcussen’s team, and they are considered the team to beat at Districts. “The other teams have some good people, but they don’t compete at the depth it takes to win Districts. I don’t know how we’ll swim,” Marcussen said. There will be about 15 swimmers headed to the district competition, and it will take all of their efforts to win. “I think we’re good enough to win it. They have to work together, and if they do that, we can take it home,” Marcussen said.

A number of teams will be at the top, vying with CFHS swimmers to take home the district championship. Ames, Muscatine, Dubuque Senior, West Des Moines Valley and Des Moines Dowling. Nontheless, Marcussen predicts that he’ll have someone in every event, if not two swimmers. Not only that, but he also said he believes that all of his relay teams will make it, and this bodes well for the Tigers chances at winning, as those events are the biggest point makers. “We need to pull together as a team, and that’s what you need to do at Districts and State to be successful.”

The strongest events for the Tigers are expected to be the 200 Free, 50 Free, 200 Individual Medley and the 100.

Marcussen summed up his belief that his team’s chemistry will be vital in order to secure a win. “(The boys competing) just gotta have the dream to win and the time drop. Our success will really come from support from the others. Even a high five, that’ll do it. Right now we’re swimming as individuals, and it can’t be that way. You need a team to do anything. You gotta have the heart too.”

The district competition will be held at Marshalltown on Feb. 6 at 12:30 p.m. The state competition is the following weekend in Marshalltown.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.