Edina, Breck/Blake take home titles

Tankers from around the state converged upon the University of Minnesota's Aquatics Center for the annual Class A and AA State Boys Swimming and Diving Meet from March 5-7. When all was said and done, Edina earned its second-straight big-school title, while Breck/Blake persevered for the small-school championship. Class AA Ranked No. 1 all season long, Edina held off challenges from Classic Lake Conference rival Minnetonka as well as southern metro power Rosemount to win the Class AA championship. The Hornets and Skippers finished 1-2 for the second season in a row as Edina earned 268 points total with Minnetonka logging 225 points. While the Irish had to settle for fourth place behind Rochester Century, who rallied to take third on the final event of the night, the Rosemount 200-yard medley relay squad made state history. The foursome of Devon Meeks, David Stern, Tony Spiel and Max Hubbard broke the Class AA record — previously held by Minnetonka — by 1/100th of a second with an All-American time of 1 minute, 34.26 seconds. It would be one of two records broken in the Class AA meet as Rochester John-Marshall's Kendrick Bachman also set a new standard in the 100-yard backstroke with an All-American result of 55.84 seconds. Edina junior Drew Johnson claimed two individual championships, finishing first with a pair of All-American swims in the in the 200-yard freestyle (1:38.95) and the 100-yard freestyle (45.15). Also winning individual state titles in their respective swimming events, and thus earning All-American status were: Rochester Century's Brian Kiel (1:48.36) in the 200-yard individual medley; Meeks (20.73) in the 50-yard freestyle; Bachman (49.55) in the 100-yard butterfly; Century's Alex Cox (4:34.41) in the 500-yard freestyle; Cretin-Derham Hall's Brian Dailey-Arndt (49.28) in the 100-yard backstroke. Elk River senior Dwight Baker rallied from a third-place standing after the semifinal round to win the diving title with a score of 433.85 off the one-meter board. Rosemount's quartet of Meeks, Hubbard, Stern and Tristan Boyd won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:25.39, with the Hornets' 400-yard freestyle relay squad of Michael Bergstrom, Mike Gratz, Chris Satterthwaite and Johnson clinching the team championship for Edina with a winning 3:06.13 effort in the concluding race of the 2008-09 season. Class A The seat of Class A power has shifted from the southeast metro to the northwest as the private school tandem of Breck/Blake unseated traditional pool goliath St. Thomas Academy for the state championship. Breck/Blake, the co-op of schools from Golden Valley and Hopkins, respectively, held on to claim the Class A title by scoring 296 points to the Cadets' 267. Inver Grove Heights' Simley placed fourth with 175 points, behind Red Wing. The Mustangs won all three relay events and claimed three more individual titles en route to the championship. The killer B's 200 medley tetrad of Mitchell Foster, Thomas Winslow, Sam Pritzker and Jack Markusen claimed the first event championship of the day in a time of 1:38.67. Markusen, Winslow, Austin Gromatzky and Nathan Yueh won the 200 freestyle in 1:27.40 before Foster, Gromatzky, Yueh and Pritzger put the finishing touches on the Class A championship with a victorious 3:14.18 team swim in the 400 relay. Individually, Yueh won the 200 freestyle with a 1:41.86, then took the title in the 500 freestyle after a winning turn in 4:49.26. Forster took top honors in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.15. The title was the first ever for the private-school duo, and snapped St. Thomas' four-year championship string.