It was a case of near misses for the Park boys in the 3AA section swim and dive championships at Two Rivers High School Friday.
Park senior standout Mason Darling finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:00.77. and was sixth in the 200-yard IM in 2:00.66. Darling just missed the state qualifying time of 1:00.38 in the breaststroke. It was a tough ending for Darling, who was fifth in the 200 IM and second in the 100-yard breaststroke in the 2023 section meet and qualified for state in that race a year ago.
Park junior Parker Jeseritz finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly in 54.01 and was fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in 54.93.
Senior Jack Schweigert was fifth in the 10-yard breaststroke in 1:03.43 and finished seventh in the 200-yard IM in 2:04.85. Logan Schweigert was 15th in the same race in 2:09.90 and was 15th in the backstroke in 1:01.10.
Park was fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with the team of Jeseritz, Darling, Logan and Jack Schweigert finishing in 1:42.38. In the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Wolfpack foursome of Jeseritz, Logan Schweigert, Darling and Jack Schweigert finished sixth in 3:28.82.
Park’s three divers all finished in the top 16 and all should return for another go next season. Ninth grader Ethyn Schilling finished sixth with 304.85 points, sophomore Carter Darling was 11th with 297.90 and ninth grader Trey Jaso was 14th with 268.85 points.
Ethan Cole of the Wolfpack finished 13th in the 100-yard freestyle in 53.18. Lalee Yang was 16th in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:00.93. Park’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Cole, Hayden Bonner, Damion Charpentier and Yang finished eighth in 1:42.12.
Park was sixth in the team race with 192 points. Eagan took home the section team trophy with 445 points, followed by: 2, East Ridge, 386; 3, Rosemount, 350; 4, Two Rivers, 218; 5, Hastings, 214; 6, Park, 192; 7, Apple Valley, 177; Eastview, 121.
Park head coach Amanda Johnson said she had mixed emotions at the end of the meet.
“It’s really hard, these boys have been with us forever and probably one of my favorite group of boys that I’ve ever had,” said Johnson. “It’s kind of sad that Mason didn’t make his state, well he really, really wanted to. But I really hope that he knows he should be proud of what he did because he did an amazing job. I hope he takes that with him when he goes to college and really thinks about what he wants to do. I know he’s looking at some swimming places and I’m hoping that he’ll continue to see because he’s really good at it.
“But with everything else, everybody did really well today,’ Johnson continued. “We had numerous time drops, better placements. I just really couldn’t ask for a better meet.”
