Charles City senior Nick Litterer qualifies for four Boys State Swim Meet events

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

Nick Litterer covers a lot of ground by traveling by land and sea.

The Charles City senior is a member of the Mason City High School boys swimming team and, thus, logs in about 60 miles round-trip after school going to and from practices not to mention the added distances for meets.

The road mileage as well as nautical miles are going to concurrently add up even more this weekend for Litterer as he is a four-event qualifier for the Boys State Swimming Meet this Saturday at the University of Iowa.

Litterer qualified as an individual in the 100 backstroke and the 200 freestyle, and with the Mohawk 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams during the Southeast Polk District Meet held last weekend.

Litterer placed second in the 200 free with a time of 1 minute, 45.97 seconds. And with a third-place time of 53.36 seconds in the 100 backstroke, Litterer edged closer to Mason City’s all-time record in the event (52.93) set in 2002 by Derek Duffy.

This weekend’s state meet will be Litterer’s final crack at the school record.

“I’m also ranked 8th in the event going into state,” Litterer said. “If I could finish in the top eight, that will get me on the medal stand, so I’m hoping for that.”

In the 200 freestyle relay, Litterer was the first leg among the Mohawk foursome also consisting of Randy Vaughan, August Davidson and Ben Hehr, who placed third with a time of 1:30.58.

Vaughan, Hehr, Michael Rowe and anchorman Litterer placed third in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:16.50.

With 317 team points, the Mohawks placed third behind champion Ankeny (455) and Marshalltown (342).

“That’s the best we’ve done since I’ve been on the team,” Litterer said of Mason City’s performance at districts.

Last year, Litterer qualified in three events for the Boys State Meet and scored points for his team in the 100 back.

After the State Meet, Litterer is due to participate in the YMCA Sectional Meet in Dubuque the following day as a member of the Charles City YMCA Swim Team. This is the final qualifier for the YMCA State Meet to take place the first weekend in March at the Marshalltown YMCA.

“They changed the rules where you can qualify for state at meets during the regular season,” Litterer said. “I’m already qualified for my events, but I’m going swim (sectionals) anyway.”

Last year, Litterer won YMCA State Meet titles in the 100 back and 200 freestyle in the 15-21 male division which both marked the first time a Charles City YMCA swimmer won a state title in 11 years.

Litterer also placed second in the 200 backstroke at last year’s YMCA State Meet.

Litterer plans to swim in college where he will attend the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.