IOWA CITY — Seven Solon High School student athletes: Calla Foster, Georgia Havlicek, Grace Hoeper, Claire Leone, Avery Mann, Tatum Holtkamp, and Ella Vernon, are swimming for Iowa City High this season.
Hoeper, a sophomore, tied with Iowa City West High-Liberty High’s Jade Roghair (senior) with two gold medals apiece in City High’s Little Hawk Invitational Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Mercer Park Aquatic Center in Iowa City. Hoeper won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.16 seconds and the 100-yard butterfly in 57.61 seconds.
Top-ten finishers for City High included Foster in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 273.40, good for tenth. Hoeper, Margalit Frank, Elsa Farber, and Saorise Miller were sixth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:46.44 while Hoeper, Miller, Frank, and Ellie Galloway were fourth in the 200-yard medley relay in 1:58.40.
Mann was 17th in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:16.03, Vernon was 20th in 2:28.62. Mann finished 14th in the 500-yard freestyle in 6:02.13.
The season opened August 23 with a 67-119 loss at home to Cedar Rapids Kennedy followed by a 68-118 home loss to Linn-Mar August 30. Dubuque Senior survived a challenge from the Little Hawks Sept. 6 prevailing 86-82 while Cedar Rapids Washington fell 112-68 in the Warriors’ pool Sept. 13.
Hoeper’s performances in the Little Hawk Invitational put her at No.1 in the state in the butterfly, and No. 2 in the 50 freestyle.