West Fargo Boys Turn State Meet Into Statement

Courtesy: Ryan Ayers

At the 2026 North Dakota Boys State Swimming and Diving Championships, the West Fargo Packers, coached by Lisa Montplaisir, Barb Fisher, Amy Sahli, and Gerald Brown, didn’t simply outscore the field, they owned the meet. Every relay. Every swim. Every dive. When it was over, West Fargo had done something that almost never happens in high school sports: the Packers captured all 12 events on the way to their third-straight state title.

Twelve events. Twelve wins. One team.

In a sport where even the best teams usually have a weak spot, West Fargo had none. The Packers turned the biggest meet of the year into a two-day display of total control, and in doing so, delivered one of the rarest victories North Dakota high school swimming has ever seen.

West Fargo had stars, but this wasn’t a one-man show. This was wave after wave of pressure. Every time another team had a chance to seize momentum, the Packers answered with another win, another record, another reminder that this meet was being executed on their terms.

The relays felt like the clearest proof of that dominance.

The Packers opened with a win in the 200 medley relay in 1:35.36 from Logan Engelstad, Isaiah Ayers, Jonah Ayers, and Ben Davies, immediately setting the tone that they were going to dictate the meet from the start. Then came the 200 freestyle relay, where West Fargo didn’t just win — they exploded; Jonah Ayers, Isaac Elhard, Logan Engelstad, and Brody Engelstad combined for a 1:21.98, breaking the state and pool records. The splits tell the story of just how sharp that relay was: 21.09, 20.38, 21.10, and a blazing 19.41 anchor from Brody Engelstad. Then came the exclamation point. In the final event of the meet, Jonah Ayers, Isaac Elhard, Brody Engelstad, and Isaiah Ayers produced a 2:59.59 in the 400 freestyle relay, another state and pool record.

That final relay mattered beyond North Dakota.

In high school swimming, a sub-3:00 400 free relay is real speed anywhere in the country. It is the kind of performance that commands attention outside state borders. Same with the 200 free relay. Those were not just winning swims, those were nationally relevant swims — the kind of times that show this team was not merely dominant locally, but legitimately fast in the broader high school landscape.

Then there were the individual performances, and West Fargo had headline swims all over the pool.
Senior Brody Engelstad brought the fire in the sprints. His 19.65 in the 50 free and 44.03 in the 100 free gave West Fargo the kind of point-scoring punch few teams in the country can match. Those aren’t just fast times for North Dakota — those are high-end high school sprint times, period. When your team can roll out that kind of speed in championship finals, the pressure on everyone else changes immediately.

Sophomore Isaac Elhard delivered one of the meet’s biggest statement swims in the 200 free, blasting a 1:37.83 that broke the state and pool record. He backed it up by winning the 100 fly in 48.27, another record-setting performance, giving West Fargo a versatile weapon who could swing momentum in multiple places.

Then freshman Logan Engelstad, already swimming like a future star, won the 200 IM in 1:53.94 and the 100 back in 50.00, after going 49.91 in prelims for a state record. A ninth-grader putting up that kind of backstroke time at a state meet is not normal. That is how programs stay dangerous year after year.

Junior Isaiah Ayers supplied the kind of range that makes championship teams nearly impossible to solve. He won the 500 free in 4:31.04, the 100 breast in 55.88, and played a major role on relays that buried the field. His prelims 500 free of 4:30.21 was a state record, and his breaststroke prelim of 55.58 was a pool record.

And when West Fargo needed the sweep to include the diving well, junior Griffin McAlister delivered. He claimed the state title on the boards with 483.80 points, making sure the Packers’ domination extended far beyond the lanes. In a meet defined by total control, McAlister’s win was the finishing touch that proved West Fargo didn’t just own the pool — they owned the entire championship.

This wasn’t just about one big swim. It wasn’t just about one superstar carrying a team. It was about complete championship pressure from the first event to the last.

And in an era where parity, specialization, and depth usually make a full-event sweep almost impossible, the Packers delivered a performance that felt bigger than a state title. It felt like one of those rare sports moments where a team reaches a level that everyone in the building instantly recognizes. You are not just watching a champion.

You are watching history.