Sabers swimmers qualify for state in six events

The Shakopee boys swim and dive team continues to set new high standards for program.

On Friday night at Hidden Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake, the Sabers had their best night ever at a section swim meet.

The Sabers not only had their highest team finish in Class 2A, Section 2 swim meet but also qualified the most individuals in school history for this weekend’s state swim meet on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

Shakopee will be represented at state by 11 swimmers/divers (alternates included) and in six events after finishing fourth at the section meet.

“We are very excited to be sending 11 athletes to the state meet this season,” head coach Eric Hills said. “Our athletes worked very hard to get there and I anticipate this will be the start of a long run where we are well represented at the state meet.”

The Sabers finished the section meet with 225 points for fourth place in the eight-team section. Eden Prairie won the section title with 505.5 points, followed by Minnetonka (477) and Prior Lake (256.5).

“We took fourth place, which is the highest we’ve ever placed at sections,” Hills said. “We are in a tough section and our guys rose to the occasion.”

The first Shakopee swimmer or diver to qualify for state was senior diver Josh Theis, who made it on Thursday night.

Theis finished with a score of 408.5 to finish as the section runner-up and qualify for his second-straight state meet. Last year, he finished in 16th place at the state meet.

“We are very excited to see how he finishes up his diving career with Shakopee,” Hills said.

The Sabers swim team returned to Hidden Oaks on Friday night and finished off the section meet by qualifying three individuals and two relays for the state meet.

Right off the bat, the Sabers made it a night to remember as they qualified for the state meet in the very first event of the night – the 200 medley relay.

The team of freshman Liam Bergerson, senior Hunter Greenhalgh, junior Hans Hover and sophomore Alex Kraft swam a time of 1 minute, 38.06 seconds to finish fourth in the event and qualify for state by beating the state qualifying time.

Kraft followed that up by finishing fourth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.84 seconds, which qualified for state.

Kraft qualified for his second event later in the meet with a time of 47.83 seconds in the 100 freestyle.

He is the first Saber swimmer to qualify for more than one event at state since Ryan O’Shaughnessy did it for the 2009 state meet. That was the last time the Sabers qualified anybody for the state swim meet besides in the diving competition.

Bergerson also qualified for the state meet by finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 53.47 seconds.

“We knew that Liam would have a good meet and would place very high,” Hills said. “We were very happy to see him drop over two seconds to make the state qualifying time.”

The Sabers wrapped up the meet just like they started by qualifying a relay team for state.

This time it was the team of Bergerson, Hover, senior Josh Klemm and Kraft in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:14.78.

Those weren’t the only strong swims turned in the Sabers at the section meet. Shakopee had several swimmers just miss out on qualifying for state.

Klemm missed the state qualifying time in the 200 freestyle by just over a second when he finished in eighth place with a time of 1:47.69. He came even closer in the 100 freestyle with a time of 48.8 seconds to finish in seventh. The state qualifying time was 48.41 seconds.

Brennan McClay swam in a time of 22.97 seconds in the 50 free to finish in 15th place but was less than a second from the qualifying time of 22.04.

Hover dropped two seconds off his best 100 butterfly time to finish in 11th place with a time of 54.39 seconds. The qualifying time was 53.2 seconds.

The Sabers’ other swimmers in the finals of the section meet included Ben Brecraft and Teddy Johnson, finishing 15th and 16th, respectively in the 100fly; Bergerson 14th in the 100 free; Gavin Wicklander eighth in the 500 free; Hover and Lucas Rognrud 10th and 16th in the 100 backstroke and Greenhalgh and Jack Bjelland eighth and 13th in the 100 breaststroke.

State schedule

The Class 2A state swim meet will take place at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center from Thursday through Saturday.

The Class 2A diving competition is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday. The swimming preliminaries are Friday at 6 p.m. and the swimming finals are Saturday at 6 p.m.