The boys of Breck/Blake won their second consecutive state title in Minnesota’s Class A, breaking the class A record in the 200 medley relay to start the meet.
Anderson Breazeale, James Pan, Spencer Pruett and Julian Frerichs went 1:33.60 to take down the medley relay record, knocking three tenths off Orono’s time from a year ago. Breazeale had a field-best 23.3 backstroke split, the 8th-grader Pan was 26.8 on breast, Pruett a field-best 22.4 on fly and Frerichs 20.9 for the fastest anchor split in the field.
Pruett would go on to win the 500 free in 4:36.66, coming within 1.3 seconds of the Class A state record. Meanwhile Breazeale would go 50.45 to win the 100 back by almost two seconds.
Second place was Winona, which got three wins from senior Griffin Wolner. Wolner went 1:40.57 to win the 200 free, besting Pruett by 1.7 seconds. He would take second to Pruett in the 500 free (4:39.54) before leading both free relay teams to victory.
He split 20.92 on the end of the 200 free relay, joining Jack Herczeg, Grant Wolner and Tanner Lozenski to go 1:25.82. Then the same four teamed up to go 3:08.68 in the 400 free relay, getting a 45.8 split from Herczeg on the anchor leg and a 46.9 leadoff from Griffin Wolner.
Herczeg also won the 100 free in 46.58.
Other event winners:
- Minnehaha sophomore Andrew Karpenko won the 200 IM in 1:53.32 with the meet’s best fly and back legs.
- Hibbing senior Sam Iozzo won a right 50 free race by two tenths, going 21.04.
- Sauk Rapids’ Jack Grabinski was the diving champ with 406.80 points.
- Red Wing’s William Meachem went 49.76 to win the 100 fly, within half a second of the Class A state record.
- Future Minnesota Golden Gopher Nic Chromey went 55.54 to win the 100 breast, the fastest 100 breast time in the state across both classes.
Top 5 Teams:
- Breck/Blake – 347
- Winona – 224
- St. Thomas – 205
- Alexandria – 182
- Sartell St. Stephen – 144
Ahh yes, I see the medley relay now. Looks like they gave up an initial lower seed to win the other two relays, smart decision there. Regardless, Winona still only had 6 scoring members (one being a 10th place diver) and they return 4 of those guys, all sophomores. Breck/Blake will certainly dominate these next couple of years but I can’t help but notice that Winona did so well with only a few guys.
Is this true: Winona placed 2nd and had 6 scoring individuals in this meet? That’s incredible.
Ten swimmers total. They stacked and won the two free relays. That’s 80 points! Breck/Blake will dominate Class Single A for years to come.