Boys swimming and diving: Koglers is state runner-up in backstroke

MINNEAPOLIS — He doesn’t focus on setting records for the Stillwater boys swimming and diving team, but Jackson Kogler seems to find them anyway.

The junior broke his own school records while earning all-state honors and All-American Consideration in two events for the Ponies in the Class AA state meet on Saturday, March 2 at the University of Minnesota’s Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.

Kogler placed second in the 100 backstroke and fourth in the 200 individual medley to lead the way for the Ponies at state. Stillwater racked up 49 points in all to place 16th in the team standings.

Edina outlasted Minnetonka 289-283 to win its fifth state championship in the past six seasons while Prior Lake totaled 252 points to place third for the second year in a row.

Stillwater featured six state entries, including two relays, and four of those advanced to the finals.

Kogler placed fourth in the backstroke and IM a year ago and he matched or exceeded those results on Saturday.

He eclipsed his own school record while finishing second in the backstroke with a time of 49.45, which was less than a second behind Prior Lake’s Ethan Kosin (48.67).

Kogler was seeded fifth in the IM after the prelims (1:50.36) one night earlier and shaved nearly half a second off that time while placing fourth in the finals with a time of 1:49.91.

“Two more school records for him,” Ponies coach Brian Luke said. “He’s a very good swimmer.”

Evan Witte of Minnetonka took top honors with a winning time of 1:48.41.

“I definitely wish I could have won the backstroke and IM, but in reality those are some really fast kids I’m swimming against,” Kogler said. “Overall, it was pretty good.”

His times were fast enough to earn All-American Consideration, less than half a second from earning Automatic All-American honors in both events.

“We won’t know that until this summer,” Luke said.

Kogler first broke the school records in those events in January during the True Team Section 4AA Meet. They were held by Jon Busse, an individual state champion in the backstroke.

But Kogler focuses on process more than specific times or records when preparing to race and the results typically follow.

“I just go into it with kind of an empty mind,” Kogler said. “I don’t like to think about it too much. I think about what I want to do in a race and the day before I think about technique, my start, my turns, but when I go to the pool I try to keep my mind blank and get into that groove and try to have fun with it a little bit because that’s how I swim fast is just having fun out there.”

He surprised himself slightly that the records were achieved this season — and that they were reached already in January.

“At the beginning of the season I thought I’d get close to what those old records were,” Kogler said. “I would have thought my senior year was the year I went down and broke those records. Going into True Team section, I did not think I’d break those records. Hitting that wall and seeing that record on the board was truly amazing — and it definitely set the mood because I thought I would get the 100 back way before the 200 IM. After that I just knew the backstroke was going down.”

The backstroke has been his strongest event, but improvement in the breastroke and butterfly have pushed him up in the IM as well. Choosing a favorite race is not as easy as it was in the past.

“I love those two events,” Kogler said. “It’s hard to pick between both. I used to really like backstroke a lot, but my IM has come around so I started to really like the IM with the variety.

“I like backstroke because I have been swimming that well my whole life. My breastroke has come a long ways in that IM. I used to fall behind people in the breastroke and now I tend to come back in the breastroke, which I never thought I would do, and I also feel like my fly has gotten a lot stronger. Every day in practice I kind of knew that it needed to be fixed and could be better so I definitely focused on breastroke and fly a lot.”

“He does everything well,” Luke added. “He’s very talented — and it helps that he’s 6-4, which doesn’t hurt. He’s manifested his talent. He works at it and he goes out and tries to get it.”

A second-place finish in the individual medley at the Maroon & Gold Invitational was the only individual race Kogler did not win this season prior to the state meet, but moving up in those events at state won’t be easy, either. The top four finishers in the IM were juniors and all eight swimmers in the finals of the backstroke were sophomores or juniors.

“Not a lot of seniors, but a lot of juniors and sophomores right now going really fast,” Kogler said. “It’s definitely going to be a lot of competition next year because they’re all my grade or lower.”

Kogler also led off Stillwater’s 400 freestyle relay team that placed 13th at state with a time of 3:15.35, with sophomore Sam Loken and seniors Wyatt Fredeen and Cameron Winters swimming the other legs.

“They split that out well and got faster than the section meet,” Luke said. “They weren’t seeded up that high so they moved up so that was good. It’s still fun to make the finals.”

Fredeen, senior Paul Hartmann, Kogler and Winters also competed at state in the 200 medley relay, but narrowly missed the finals after ranking 17th in prelims with a time of 1:38.91 — just .01 behind Woodbury (1:38.90) for the last spot in the finals.

“That’s as close you can get without being there,” Luke said. “That was unfortunate.”

“We were disappointed, but it was a feat to even get there in that relay,” Kogler added. “We would never have thought we could have gotten a state time in the section.”

Fredeen also competed at state in the 200 individual medley, finishing 21st after prelims with a time of 1:58.06.

“I was happy with the way the guys performed,” Luke said. “The medley just missed getting in the finals by a hundredth and Fredeen just missed the IM, but everything else made the finals.”

Stillwater was also represented a state in diving with Tate Sorensen. He ranked sixth after the semifinals and was still clinging to eighth place before the final dive before landing just off the medal stand in ninth place with a total of 392.10. It was his best showing in four trips to state.

“He was disappointed he didn’t get the medal, but I feel like he was accepting and proud of what he had done and his career has been phenomenal,” Luke said. “You have to take the whole picture and I think he was happy with his overall career.”

Lucas Gerten of Rosemount won his third straight individual state title in diving and matched the all-time state record with a score of 539.60.

Sorensen, the three-time individual section champion, finished less than eight points behind eighth-place finisher Trey Maroney (399.75) of Minnetonka.

“He had a little less (degree of difficulty) than the other kid,” Luke said. “It still hurts when you dive really well, but that was the first time he made the finals so it was a good way to end his Stillwater diving career.”

Sorensen, Fredeen, Hartmann and Winters were the only seniors on Stillwater’s roster this season and it was rewarding to have them each closing out their careers at state, the coach suggested.

“They were all in the state meet and competitive so that’s great,” Luke said. “Unfortunately you rip that right out of the team for next year so we’ll have to have kids step up and fill those spots.”

Kogler said he will miss them as well.

“I love those guys,” Kogler said. “I’ve been with them for three years now, probably a little more than that, and it’s been a great ride. They always make the time between whenever I’m nervous and it was definitely a big deal having them there.”

The Ponies finished third in the Suburban East Conference standings and third in the Section 4AA Meet, which was notable considering the many new faces contributing throughout the season.

“I think it went better than I could have ever planned it to,” Kogler said. “Those kids really stepped up and everybody worked really hard. This year as a whole was probably one of the best improvements we’ve had and everybody dropped time. We just had a big improvement with everybody on the team.”

“I thought the guys developed the whole season and these guys developed great camaraderie,” Luke added. “When they’re hanging out they get along and support each other and have fun. It was a fun year. All the kids from JV to these guys, I appreciated everything they did.”

Team standings (top 10)

1. Edina 289; 2. Minnetonka 283; 3. Prior Lake 252; 4. Wayzata 188; 5. Lakeville South 167; 6. Eagan 102; 7. Duluth East 94.5; 8. Rochester Century 87; 9. Sauk Rapids-Rice 84; 10. East Ridge 79; 16. Stillwater 49.

Individual results

200 medley relay — 1. Prior Lake, 1:31.48. Prelims: 17. Stillwater (Wyatt Fredeen, Paul Hartmann, Jackson Kogler and Cameron Winters) 1:38.91.

200 freestyle — 1. Micah Davis (St. Cloud Tech) 1:36.74.

200 individual medley — 1. Evan Witte (Minnetonka) 1:48.41; 4. Jackson Kogler (St) 1:49.91. Prelims: 5. Kogler (St) 1:50.36; 21. Wyatt Fredeen (St) 1:58.06.

50 freestyle — 1. Rohan D’Souza Larson (Edina) 20.55.

Diving — &1. Lucas Gerten (Rosemount) 539.60; 9. Tate Sorensen (St) 392.10. Semifinals: 6. Sorensen (St) 289.70. Prelims: 10. Sorensen (St) 181.90.

100 butterfly — &1. Micah Davis (St. Cloud Tech) 46.94.

100 freestyle — 1. Evan Witte (Minnetonka) 44.59.

500 freestyle — 1. Jiarui Xue (Edina) 4:25.19.

200 freestyle relay — 1. Edina, 1:23.13.

100 backstroke — 1. Ethan Kosin (Prior Lake) 48.67; 2. Jackson Kogler (St) 49.45. Prelims: 2. Kogler (St) 49.61.

100 breastroke — 1. Jack Hackler (Waconia) 54.27.

400 freestyle relay — 1. Minnetonka, 3:03.93; 13. Stillwater (Jackson Kogler, Wyatt Fredeen, Sam Loken and Cameron Winters) 3:15.35. Prelims: 13. Stillwater (Kogler, Loken, Winters and Fredeen) 3:15.23.

* Stillwater school record

# Class AA state record

& Minnesota all-time state record