Sports
UPDATED PHOTO GALLERY: By a Point, St. Thomas Academy Swimmers Miss Another State Title
Cadets fall agonizingly close in a bid to win 11th MSHSL state swimming and diving championship.
It was the bitterest of bittersweet days for the St. Thomas Academy swimmers and divers Saturday as the Cadets lost the Class A state championship by a single point.
A two-point swing Saturday would have given the Cadets their 11th MSHSL swimming and diving team championship. As it is, the Cadets have finished second, third and second over the last three seasons.
Fergus Falls edged St. Thomas Academy 205-204 for the Class A team title. Two-time defending Class A state champion Breck/Blake was third with 201, Monticello fourth with 168, Richfield fifth with 162 and Simley sixth with 150.
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“They outswam us,” said Cadets head coach John Barnes. “There were a couple of events that really hurt us. And they stepped up real big in the second half of the meet and those two events came back to really bite us.
“I have this funny saying,” said Barnes. “First is first and second is last. So, for about 48 hours to me this will not even be close to satisfying. When I sit down and look at how far some of these kids came, then I’ll realize what it means.”
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Individuals from 34 teams competed before an official crowd of 2,322 in the Class A state meet.
Junior Luke Johanns swam to a pair of third-place finishes to highlight the individual races for the Cadets. Johanns was third in 50 freestyle in 21.35 and third in the 100 backstroke in 52.81.
Michael Berg was third in the 500 freestyle in 4:51.85 and fifth in the 200 freestyle in 1:47.56.
In the 100 breaststroke: Sam Nields was fifth (1:00.44), Paul Brunkhorst sixth (1:00.79) and Sam Johnson 12th (1:03.37).
In the 200 medley relay the team of Johanns, Nields, Danny Schaefer and Tim Anderson were fourth in 1:38.65. The 400 freestyle relay team of Johanns, Alex Curran, Johnson and Brunkhorst was sixth (3:21.31) and the 200 freestyle relay of Anderson, Brunkhorst, Schaefer and Luke Schneeman was 12th (1:31.67).
Sam Johnson was sixth in the 200 IM in 2:03.90 and Tyler Pavlick was 13th (2:08.92).
Anderson was 13th in the 50 freestyle in 22.64. In the 100 butterfly, Brunkhorst finished 13th (56.0) and Danny Schaefer was 16th (57.21).
In the 500 freestyle, in addition to Berg, Pavlick was eighth (5:12.62) and Jeremy Conners 10th (5:04.04).
“Some of the boys, Tim Anderson, Jeremy Conners, some of my younger guys swam really well,” said Barnes. “Michael Berg, a sophomore, swam out of his mind. Luke Johanns had a great meet. So we had a lot of really good swims, we just don’t have quite the horses, the big guns. We try to be a Woody Hayes offense with three or four yards and a cloud of dust, and they did a goal line stand at the end of the game.”
