Boys swimming: Willmar, D-C/Litchfield, Montevideo contingents head to state
· Yahoo Sports
Feb. 24—MINNEAPOLIS — Section 3A decreased in size for boys swimming and diving this season.
St. Cloud Apollo joined the new St. Cloud Crush, which is a co-op in Class AA. Monticello also made the jump up to Class AA.
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That left Section 3A with six teams, including three from the West Central Tribune area.
By not adding any teams into the section's field, opportunities for state berths increased.
Athletes from
,
and
took advantage.
Six swimmers and five relays have qualified for this week's Class A state championships at the University of Minnesota's Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center this week.
Class A begins with the diving preliminaries at noon Thursday, followed by the swimming preliminaries at noon Friday and the finals for both at noon Saturday.
Sam Sheets is the featured swimmer for the Cardinals.
He qualified for the 50-yard freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
The senior is seeded seventh in the 50 freestyle at 22.07 seconds from the section meet.
He has the 10th seed in the 100 breaststroke from his 1:01.20 at sections.
"Sam has a great shot at the championship heat in both of his races," Willmar head coach Carl Shuldes said. "He is one of those kids you love to have on your team. He not only works hard for himself, he makes sure that everybody is on the same page and doing what they need to do."
Sheets was key in helping the 200 freestyle relay secure the eighth seed in 1:30.71.
He is the veteran on the 200 freestyle relay team that featured freshman Beckham Sebesta, sophomore Matthew Lammers and junior Abram Schueler at sections.
Sheets was on the 200 freestyle relay team that was seventh in state at 1:30.88 in 2025.
"They have their eyes set on the school record," said Shuldes, whose relay team will attempt to break the 1:29.26 mark from 2020. "They want to place as high as they can at state. They're not going to be happy with just getting to the second day. They want to get up on the podium a couple of steps. They're motivated."
Nolan Christopher headlines the pack of swimmers for the Thunder Hawks.
After a pair of podium finishes including seventh- and eighth-place finishes in the 200 and 500 freestyles last season, Christopher will compete in the 100 and 200 freestyles.
Christopher has the fourth seed for the 200 freestyle at 1:45.48 and is the seventh seed for the 100 freestyle at 48.53.
"Nolan, our lone senior this year, has been with our program for what seems like forever and he is an incredible freestyle swimmer for us," Montevideo head coach Isaac Schreiner said. "He is seeded very well in both of his events and I feel like he still has more time left to drop in his races down at the state meet."
Christopher will also swim for the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams at state.
The veteran, in tandem with juniors Hayden Blom and Haaken Weckwerth and sophomore Cody Westby, has the fifth seed for the 200 freestyle in 1:29.87 at sections.
Those four earned the seventh seed for the 200 medley relay with a 1:40.24 section time.
"These guys really took ownership over these two relays," Schreiner said.
Blom and Weckwerth also each qualified individually.
Blom is seeded fifth for the 50 freestyle at 21.99. Weckwerth has the 20th seed for the 100 butterfly at 55.63.
"This is a really fun group of guys — they know how to swim fast — but they also know how to have fun," Schreiner said. "I hope that we can get on the podium."
Dominic Borg and Matthew Defries have both qualified for two individual events in leading the way for Dassel-Cokato/Litchfield's representation at the state meet.
Borg is a senior who is seeded third for the 50 freestyle at 21.77 and seeded sixth in the 100 freestyle at 48.44. He finished 11th in the 50 freestyle in 22.31 and 14th in the 100 freestyle in 49.61 at state a season ago.
Defries is also a senior with the fifth seed in the 100 freestyle at 48.35 and the ninth seed in the 50 freestyle at 22.24.
"Dominic and Matt have been tying each other all year and they've been pushing each other in practice," DCL head coach Nathan Youngs said. "It's been an ideal situation."
Borg and Defries as well as juniors Parker Josephson and Noah Sarff earned the third seed for the 400 freestyle relay after they clocked a 3:17.14 at sections.
That quartet also secured the sixth seed for the 200 freestyle relay in 1:29.99 at sections.
"We're just really happy with the way the year came out," Youngs said.