Iowa City West Edges Out Linn-Mar For IHSAA Boys State Title

2026 Iowa High School Athletic Association Boys State Swim Championships

• Feb. 13-14, 2026
• Iowa City, IA
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results

In a close finish, the Iowa City West boys team won its fourth state title and first since 2020 at the Iowa High School Athletic Association State Championships.

Iowa City West outlasted Linn-Mar by four points and improved on a runner-up finish last year.

“Since day one, we’ve been goal-oriented; we wanted this thing more than anything and it just means so much,” West senior Winston Fan told the Iowa City Press-Citizen. “We’ve been putting in the work since every morning and every night at practice and it paid off. We just had to hit this taper and we came in ranked third and we ended up being first … so we won the meet and it means the world.”

Iowa City West won two relays, starting when the team of Ethan Landon (22.84), Jack Tunwall (26.62), Fan (21.70) and Oliver Mikulski (19.98) won the 200 medley relay in 1:31.14.

In the 200 free relay, Iowa City West’s squad of Mikulski (21.11), Link Ortman (22.41), Fan (20.27) and Hudson Huberg (20.44) won in a time of 1:24.23.

The 400 free relay was won by Linn-Mar’s quartet of Parker Macho (44.36), Rylee Sieren (46.12), Carter Byers (47.47) and Clayton Treharne (46.51) in 3:04.46.

Iowa City West’s 4th-place finish in the event was enough to finish four points ahead of Linn-Mar in the final team standings.

The individual standouts were Macho, Cedar Rapids Washington senior Andrew Seifert and Newton senior Finn Martin.

Macho, a Cincinnati commit, set a new state record in the 100 butterfly, coming in with a time of 46.58. He broke the previous record of 46.89 set in 2023 by Lance Swanepoel of Ankeny.

3⃣ events and 2⃣ state meet records later…we’ve hit the second and final break of tonight’s prelims‼️

🚨100 Yard Butterfly: Parker Macho, Linn Mar – 46.74
🚨100 Yard Free: Andrew Seifert, CR Washington – 43.25

📺 https://t.co/eVfsdBvU4W
📊 https://t.co/VyHTncQsTr
🏊‍♂️… pic.twitter.com/vVBcvidRvU

— IHSAA (@IHSAA) February 14, 2026

Macho then won the 200 IM in a personal best 1:47.61. Macho also won both events at last year’s state meet.

Seifert, who has committed to Dordt University, swam a personal best time of 43.60 to win the 100 free and later won the 100 breast in 53.40. Seifert was 2nd in both events last year.

Martin, a Notre Dame commit, broke a 10-year-old state record in the 50 free, winning that event for the third year in a row in a time of 20.06. Martin broke the previous record of 20.15 set in 2016 by Mark McGlaughlin of Iowa City West.

Other individual winners were:

• Will Van Zee, a senior from West Des Moines, won the 500 free in a personal best 4:22.76 to improve on a 3rd-place finish last year.
• Teagen Renze, a senior from Carroll and Ohio State commit, swam a personal best time of 1:37.20 to win the 200 free. He was 2nd last year.
• Desmond Ortega, a junior from Southeast Polk, won the 100 back in a personal best time of 48.87.

Boys Team Standings — Top 5

1. Iowa City West, 224
2. Linn-Mar, 220
3. Waukee, 175
4. Waukee Northwest, 162
5. West Des Moines, 158

Para Results

In the para portion of the event, Sioux City won the para team state championship, while several individuals set new state records.

• Max Heiar, a senior from Dubuque, set new state records in both the 50 free (26.14) and 100 back (1:05.72).
• Jaiden Lovelace from Sioux City West set a new state record of 2:55.23 in the 200 free.
• Austen Lovelace won the 100 free in a new state record time of 1:13.62.
• In the 100 breast, Kale Lincoln of Southeast Polk set a new state record of 1:27.26.