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Triton swimmers ready for a big season

Joe Plane has helped put the Iowa Central swim program on the map as a national contender.

Now, Plane and the Tritons are looking to dive deeper into the pool following a year in which both the men’s and women’s teams finished in the Top-3 and the school claimed the first-ever national champion.

Emile Lutzeler won the 50 breaststroke last year, making history as the first Iowa Central swimmer to place atop the national podium. The men were a program-best second overall and the women finished in third.

“We return 340 points from nationals from the men and 328 from the women, and that doesn’t include relays,” Plane said. “We have very high expectations for this coming season.”

Lutzeler, Marcelo Busch Ataide, Vinicius Molz and Mariano Sosa all accumulated at least 50 points each at nationals last season.

Molz was the runner-up in the 1000 freestyle and four other Triton relays claimed silver at nationals.

“We’ve been working hard early this season,” Plane said. “Iowa Lakes will be a good test to see where we are. We have so many swimmers that I needed to give them all a chance to swim primary events to see what kind of times they can put up. This will be a good marker of how training is going and what we need to continue to focus on in order for us to improve.”

For the women, Emilie Andrin and Paula Ronda won six combined silvers at nationals as Plane was named the women’s coach of the year. Iowa Central has placed third overall in the country three consecutive seasons.

“We have many key returning scorers, but also added some important newcomers,” Plane said. “Billy Cruz, Drew Giles, Tjeerd Van Stein and Dalton Hammel on the men’s side, with Shannon Murphy and Magali Mouton on the women’s side are just a few of those we expect a lot out of.”

The Tritons open their season Friday night inside the Dodger pool against Iowa Lakes. The NJCAA National Championships are March 4-7 in Fort Pierce, Fla.

2019 IOWA CENTRAL SWIMMING

Men

Sophomores — Marcelo Busch Ataide, Vincent Fletcher, John Gill, Emile Lutzeler, Vinicius Molz, Andrew Oberg, Javier Ronda Bou, Mariano Sosa, Zachary Strohm, Eric Wieser.

Freshmen — Anthony Coudron, Guillermo Cruz Zuniga, Andres Giles, Dalton Hammel, Gerard Ijspeert, Andrew Iverson, Cameron Keck, Cole Keenan, Baxter Moulden, Nathan Perkins, Javier Santiago, Tjeerd Van Stein.

Women

Sophomores — Emilie Andrin, Zoe Beals, Eve Berg, Blaire Collett, Maria Diaz, Aubrey Hala, Mary Marshall, Paula Ronda.

Freshmen — Christina Alfaro, Magali Mouton, Shannon Murphy.

Schedule

Oct. 4 — Iowa Lakes; 19 — host quadrangular.

Nov. 2 — at Loras/Illinois Institute of Tech; 8 — at Morningside/UK Kearney; 9 — at Mustang Invitational; 21-23 — at Sioux Falls Invitational.

Jan. 11 — at Henderson State; 18 — at South Dakota; 25 — at UW-Oshkosh.

Feb. 1-2 — at Coyote Invitational; 8 — at Iowa Lakes; 15-16 — at St. Ambrose Invitational.

March 4-7 — NJCAA National Championships.

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