COTTAGE GROVE — It was a strong showing for the Stillwater boys swimming and diving team while claiming the title in the Suburban East Conference JV Meet on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Oltman Middle School.
The Ponies, who placed first in two relays and added two individual victories, held off East Ridge 396-368 for the top spot while Woodbury followed in third with 294 points.
Stillwater and East Ridge each compiled four victories in the meet.
“It was really exciting to win,” Ponies coach Brian Luke said. “The varsity was there supporting them and they had some good times. It was fun.”
Stillwater started and ended the meet with victories. The 200 medley relay team of Peter Severson, Jack Howell, Noah Vu and Bodie Sheffer turned in a winning time of 2:01.19, less than half a second ahead of the runner-up team from Woodbury (2:01.47). The Ponies also closed out the meet with a more comfortable victory in the 400 freestyle relay as Sheffer, Severson, Nick Larson and Levi Winters finished with a winning time of 4:00.60, nearly 13 seconds ahead of runner-up East Ridge (4:13.30).
Vu added a victory in the 200 individual medley (2:25.13) while teammate John Richardson followed in third at 2:37.42.
“From where he started just last year he’s getting pretty competitive, so that’s a good thing,” Luke said of Richardson.
Stillwater placed three in the top five in the 100 butterfly, led by Vu (1:04.26) in second and Sheffer (1:05.74) and Jack Howell (1:08.11) in third and fifth.
“Noah was really great,” Luke said. “He was second in the fly but it was a lifetime best by like three seconds and in the IM it was his best time by like six or seven seconds.”
Stillwater’s other first-place finish came in the 500 freestyle. Cooper Wanderer won the event in 5:46.77 while teammates Larson (6:00.84) and Winters (6:00.86) followed in fourth and fifth.
Winters also placed second in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:12.01, just .06 behind Lincoln Owings (2:11.95) of Woodbury. Nick Larson (2:14.26) and Cooper Wanderer (2:14.31) followed in third and fourth.
“Levi came on real nice there,” Luke said.
Stillwater placed third in 200 free relay with Vu, Larson, Howell and Winters contributing to a time of 1:48.66.
Peter Severson placed second in the 100 backstroke with time of 1:07.38, less than two-tenths of a second behind winner Tyler Cracauer (1:07.22) of Park.
Jack Howell (1:18.23) and Bodie Sheffer (1:18.35) placed second and third in the 100 breastroke.
This was the final meet of the season for the athletes not competing for Stillwater in the Section 4AA Meet, which is scheduled for Feb. 22-24 at Stillwater Middle School. The state meet is scheduled for Feb. 29-March 2 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
“We’re looking forward to this week, so we’ll see how that goes,” Luke said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0