Senior Quentin Hogue won two events, and Kyler Alme led a 1-2-3-4 finish for Bismarck Century High School in the 100 breast to seal the school’s fourth straight North Dakota Boys High School Swimming and Diving State Championship. After decades of dominance from Minot High School (they won 24 team titles from 1978-2011), Bismarck Century has begun to establish their own mini-dynasty. At this year’s championships, they scored 411.5 points, just over 150 points clear of runner-up Fargo South High School, which captured five event wins on the weekend.
Fargo South got off to a fast start by claiming the first two events of meet: John Olson, Luke Bergstrom, Anderw Hollingsworth, and Connor Bjellum won the 200 medley relay in 1:37.18, with Bjellum immediately coming back to repeat as 200 free champion (1:44.56).
Following a win from Gerald Brown of Minot in the 200 IM (1:56.38), Century struck back with their first victory of the day from Hogue, with the senior out-touching Fargo South’s Bergstrom, 21.72 to 21.75. Fargo South would get back-to-back victories after the diving break (Hollingsworth in the 100 fly [52.52], Bjellum in the 100 free [46.71]), but Century displayed strong depth in those events (five A-finalists combined) that allowed them to actually build on their lead. Two events later, the quartet of Hogue, Adam Nodland, Sam Artz, and Taylor Hedge came back to win the 200 free relay by nearly two seconds (1:27.85).
The nail in the coffin, though, was the 100 breaststroke, where Alme (58.01), senior Ethan Porter (58.21), junior Eric Bergeson (1:00.87), and freshman Jayden Porter (1:01.37) swept the top four breaststroke spots for Century.
Fargo South finished off the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay from Bergstrom, Massimo Sassi, Bjellum, and Hollingsworth in 3:13.65, just over a half-second off the state record.
