Park swim team exceeds expectations, breaks school record

Swimming alongside reigning State champions, the Park boys’ swim team sprinted their way through section preliminaries on Thursday, with several swimmers qualifying to swim at finals on Saturday.
Senior captain Branch Johnson, senior Phillip Kersten, sophomore Nathan Beneke, eighth grader Nate Stone and seventh grader Alec Pittman all qualified to advance to the finals in individual events. All three of Park’s relays will advance as well.
Senior team manager Katie Magill said the meet went well overall and there was a lot of time dropped. Magill also said that qualifying for the state meet is a possibility for some swimmers.
“I am pretty confident that some of our swimmers will make it to state for individual swims,” she said. “It is also a possibility that one, if not two, of our relays will make it [to state].”
Johnson is one Park swimmer who swam well in preliminaries. He will advance to finals in the 200 medley relay, the 200 individual medley, and the 100 backstroke, with a chance at qualifying for state in all three events.
“I am very happy with my times,” Johnson said. “I got a personal record in everything I swam and I got the team record and the state cut in the 100 back. Also, I am within one second of the 200 individual medley state cut.”
According to Minnesota State High School League regulations, a swimmer must achieve the State time cut at finals of the sections meet. This means that Johnson must repeat his times from Thursday in order to qualify for the state meet. However, Johnson said the atmosphere of the meet helped the team swim fast, and it is likely they will drop even more time on Saturday.
“It is very nice to have swim against these teams,” he said. “Without those really fast guys next to us, we would not have dropped as much time as we did.”
Magill said she attributes the team’s fast swimming to the overall growth throughout the season.
“I think that people have really been good about being good role models for the younger swimmers, especially this year with so many of the kids being from the Junior High,” she said. “I think a lot of them are taking swimming more seriously and taking on more responsibility.”
Finals start at 1:00 pm Feb. 22 at the Art Downey Aquatic Center in Edina, Minn.