Charles City YMCA swim team peaking in time for state tournament

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Stones tend to sink in water.

Kidney stones are not that buoyant, either.

For Ellen Wandro, they pretty much sunk her senior high school swim season with the Charles City girls team.

“I was sick for most of the year, and I’m just getting back to where I was before,” said Wandro, who also swims for the Charles City YMCA swim team, and is among the team’s 15 qualifiers for the YMCA State Meet, March 5-6 in Marshalltown.

“I’m ready,” said Wandro, who specializes in the 100-yard freestyle. “I’m about at my peak condition, so it’s a matter of working on the little things like starts and turns.

“Now him,” Wandro said in reference to Nicholas Litterer, “he still hasn’t peaked as he’s still dropping time.”

At the recent Sectional Meet held Feb. 13-14 in Ankeny, Litterer helped his team place second overall while earning three individual runner-up finishes and teaming up with Stephen Backman, Ezra Willson and Isaac Jensen to win the 200 medley and 200 free relays.

Litterer, who placed sixth in the 100 backstroke at last year’s YMCA State Meet, is a freshman at Charles City, which doesn’t have a boys swim program.

“Naturally, I would like for them to have a boys team,” Litterer said. “I may go out for Mason City’s team next season like I will for soccer.”

Other notable swimmers for CC YMCA at the Sectional Meet included Marley Hagarty, who placed first in the 50 backstroke and 100 individual medley; Isaac Fortunato, who placed first in the 100 breaststroke; Ian Collins, who placed first in the 50 free and 50 back; Jensen, who placed first in the 100 back; Morgan Haus, who dropped 41 seconds from her seed time in the 500 freestyle — just missed qualifying by two seconds; Lauren Connell, who dropped more than 15 seconds from her seed time in the 200 breast; and Beth Oleson, who dropped more than 33 seconds from her seed time in the 50 breast.

Litterer, Hagarty, Jensen, Kiki Connell and Makayla Nierling all qualified for all the events in which they swam.

“There were many swims to be proud of … far too many to list,” CC YMCA coach Rich Turpen said. “We knew going in that Ankeny (the sectional champion) had more No. 1-ranked swimmers in the state. For us to come away with 19 top-three finishes was an outstanding achievement.”

Turpen said that the 15 qualifiers to swim in 25 events is the most the team has sent down to state in the 10 years he’s been coaching at the YMCA — last four as head coach.

“We had about 67 kids out this season,” Turpen said. “That’s a decent number, though we’ve had as many as 87 a few years ago.

“Usually, whenever it’s an Olympic year is when you get the most kids out for swimming.”

The program caters to ages 6-18. Turpen, a former Charles City High School swimmer when it had a boys program, got involved with the YMCA program when his son, Austin, began to swim competitively.