2025 Minnesota Boys’ True Team Class A State Championship
- January 18, 2025
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center — Minneapolis, MN
- 25 Yards (SCY)
- Full Results
Last March, the Breck-Blake Boys Swimming and Diving team solidified itself as one of the strongest programs in Minnesota high school history by winning a historic eighth-straight State Championship, breaking the record for most consecutive titles in state history. The team set itself up for another championship bid on Jan. 18, winning the Class A 2025 Minnesota True Team State Championship and confirming the team’s strength even in a different championship meet format.
True Team competitions place value on every swimmer in each event. First place is worth as many points as the number of possible entries. Relay points are still worth double, and in Minnesota, each school enters four swimmers and four relay teams per event. In Minnesota, meets are held at the section level, the six section winners earn automatic berths to the state championships, and six teams earn “wild card” bids to bring the field to 12 programs.
Breck-Blake earned 2028 points for the win, outscoring St. Thomas Academy by 100.5 points. Senior Henry Webb led the full team effort, swimming three meet records. Webb kicked his record-setting day off in the 200 freestyle, clocking a meet record of 1:38.26. This swim brought the meet record under 1:40 for the first time as Webb bested Jack Herczeg’s five-year-old mark of 1:40.61.
Webb, a Yale commit, then smashed the meet record in the 500 freestyle, swimming a season-best 4:31.56 that broke Nico Losinski’s meet record from 2022 by almost ten seconds. He jumped out to the lead from the start and didn’t look back, winning the race by 17.54 seconds. Finally, Webb flexed his freestyle range by knocking off the 100 freestyle meet record while leading off Breck-Blake’s ‘A’ 400 freestyle relay. Webb swam 44.91, which helped power the relay squad of Webb, Ryan Lee, Nate Like, and Teddy Frerichs to the win in 3:16.66 and confirm the overall team title.
Webb was Breck-Blake’s only individual event winner of the day, but the structure of the championship values depth over top-end speed. Breck-Blake consistently turned in strong finishes from all four swimmers in each event. For example, in the 200 IM, which Winona & Cotter senior Alessandro Paladini won, Breck-Blake earned 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 18th. The team was even stronger in the 100 fly and 500 freestyle. In the former, they finished 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 16th behind Northfield senior Josh Kraby (51.25). Then, the team touched 1st, 4th, 10th, and 13th in the 500 freestyle.
The runners-up, St. Thomas Academy, flexed its depth as well. Not only did junior Luke Mechtel earn individual event wins in the 50 freestyle (21.03) and 100 breaststroke (56.99)—and swim a lifetime best in the former—but St. Thomas won the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
Sherman Holmstadt, Mechtel, Dane Dow, and Kayden Greeley swam away from the field to win the 200 medley relay by 2.24 seconds in 1:34.99. Later, Mechtel, Greeley, William Nash, and Leo Ritzenthaler won the 200 freestyle relay in a similarly decisive fashion, clocking 1:27.97 to win by 1.59 seconds.
The other individual event winners at the meet were senior Dani Maury (100 free, 48.45), senior Alex Wilwerding (100 back, 55.03), and sophomore Gideon Fish (1-meter diving, 500.5).
Final Results
- Breck-Blake — 2028
- Saint Thomas Academy — 1927.5
- Northfield — 1911.5
- Grand Rapids — 1645
- Orono — 1548
- Benilde-St Magaret’s — 1378.5
- Delano-Watertown-Mayer — 1302
- Alexandria — 1292.5
- Melrose-Sauk Centre — 1288
- Winona & Cotter — 1254
- Monticello — 1049
- Mankato West — 788
Break Blake has always been a dominant team with incredible depth.