Minot High School won their second straight state title at Saturday’s North Dakota State High School Girls Swimming and Diving Championships at the Bismarck Aquatic Center. Although the Majettes won only one event (200 free relay), they placed enough swimmers and divers in every final to come out on top with 339 points. West Fargo was runner-up for the second year in a row, scoring 313 points.
Bismarck Century took control of the meet early on with a 1:47.54 victory in the 200 medley relay. They were about a half-second off the meet mark they had set in 2012. Dani Bergeson (26.09), Vanessa Herrmann (29.94), Tess Sether (27.12), and Abby Bourgois (24.39) contributed to the effort. West Fargo (Mykin Gunning, Andie Peterson, Emily Bourassa, and Hallie Peterson-1:48.94) came in ahead of Fargo North (Olivia Roche, Ellie Roche, Anna Astrup, and Erin Slack -1:50.09) for second.
Grand Forks Central freshman Lexi Ljunggren won the first of her two individual titles with a 1:51.44 in the 200 free. Ljunggren was runner-up last year with 1:54.37 as an eighth-grader. Sophomore Emma Hepper of Bismarck went 1:52.17 for second, while West Fargo junior Hallie Peterson (1:53.98) placed third.
North Fargo senior Ellie Roche, who has committed to swim at Michigan State in the fall, won her sixth career individual state title, going 2:06.50 in the 200 IM. She had created a nearly two-second buffer between herself and the rest of the field by the end of the butterfly so it’s no wonder she was alone at the finish. Bismarck Century freshman Herrmann took second in 2:09.25; her teammate Bourgois was third (2:10.69).
Junior Breah Anderson of Fargo North was the only sub-24 in prelims of the 50 free. She held on to her top seeding in finals and defeated last year’s state champion, Minot junior Emily Hamel, 23.71 to 23.93. Third place went to Alexis Doherty, an eighth-grader from Grand Forks Red River, in 24.78.
The diving points were much more evenly spread out in this year’s contest than in 2013, when Shanley dominated the event. Shanley took top honors again on Saturday, with junior Brittany Dixon, scoring 412.60 points, but the rest of the podium was more varied. Erin Hillerud of Jamestown placed second with 398.45 points and Fargo South’s Quincee Simonson was third with 375.50.
Bismarck Century senior and future Minnesota Gopher Bergeson took her first of two titles with a resounding 56.13 victory in the 100 fly. Peterson of West Fargo was runner-up, going 58.17. North Fargo freshman Astrup held off strong-charging Minot senior Francesca Walker-Rozo, 58.88 to 59.00, to claim third place.
Fargo North’s Anderson doubled up with a state title in the 100 free, controlling the race from start to finish and touching in 51.72. Hamel of Minot went 52.96 to finish second in front of Fargo North sophomore Olivia Roche (53.89).
Grand Forks Central’s Ljunggren picked up her second win of the day with a successful defense of her 2013 title in the 500 free. She had dipped under 5:00 for the first time in prelims, going 4:58.96, but didn’t improve on that time in finals. Still, her 5:00.61 was nearly a full pool length in front of her nearest competitor. Minot teammates McKenna Brown (5:11.69) and Alexis Clark (5:13.70) place second and third, respectively.
The Minot 200 free relay defended their 2013 title but fell short of re-breaking that record by 4/10 of a second. Cassie Askvig (25.35), Brown (24.77), Josie Gillund (24.94), and Hamel (23.59) combined for a winning 1:38.65. Fargo North (B Anderson, Leann Mengelkoch, Astrup, and Slack) went 1:39.13 for second; West Fargo (Bourassa, Mariah Heise, Cora Riehl, and Brianna Faul) was third in 1:43.09.
Bismarck Century’s Bergeson claimed her second win of the day and seventh individual state title when she took the 100 back in 56.30. Hepper from Bismarck picked up her second silver with a 57.40 finish. Jamestown senior Annie Hart placed third, touching in 58.40. If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because it was a repeat of the 2013 podium, although both Hepper and Hart were significantly faster this year.
Freshman Herrmann from Bismarck Century won the title in the 100 breast. She swam a lifetime best of 1:04.45. Coming into the meet Herrmann had never been under 1:09. She dropped 4.2 seconds in prelims and another half-second in finals and wound up on top of the podium. West Fargo eighth-grader Andie Peterson, also with a huge drop (nearly four seconds, year-over-year), claimed second in 1:04.95. Fargo North’s Ellie Roche went 1:05.40 for third.
The only state record to go down came at the hands of the Fargo North 400 free relay team of B Anderson (52.28), O Roche (53.58), Mengelkoch (53.88), and E Roche (52.07) combined for 3:31.81, smashing West Fargo’s 2013 mark by 1.52 seconds. West Fargo (H Peterson, A Peterson, Faul, and Gunning-3:34.92) took second; Bismarck Century (Bourgois, Herrmann, Amy Warren, and Bergeson-3:35.75), third.
