Park’s Mitchell LeMay swam to state in two events, Matt Glenna did the same, breaking his own school record time to win the 100-yard freestyle. The Wolfpack 200-yard freestyle relay team set a new school record and also qualified for state in a banner day for Park at the Section 3AA meet.

Park’s state qualifiers were LeMay in the 50 freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, Glenna in the 100 and 200 freestyles and the 200-freestyle team of junior LeMay and seniors Ethan Anderson, Evan Darling and Glenna.

The state tournament will be held Friday and Saturday at the Jean K. Freeman Center at the University of Minnesota. Class AA swimming preliminaries are Friday at 6 p.m. with the finals starting at 6 p.m. Saturday.

At state, Glenna is seeded 16th in the 200-yard freestyle and 17th in the 100-yard freestyle. LeMay comes in with the 11th best time in the 100-yard butterfly and 21st in the 50-yard freestyle. Park’s 200-yard freestyle relay team has the 11th fastest time. The top eight swimmers advance to the finals, the next eight swim in a consolation race.

“I know he thinks his taper went as well in the sections. I don’t think he looked bad at all, but I think he’ll actually look better at state,” said Park head coach Amanda Johnson of Glenna.

Glenna may very well have his eyes set on the school record in the 200, one of the few freestyle sprint records he doesn’t hold yet.

“I did drop time at sections, but I wasn’t super happy with how much time I dropped,” said Glenna. “I didn’t drop a whole lot. It would be nice to drop some more time to get within a range that I would like. To get the record in the 200 would be 1:49 or faster, that would be the ultimate goal. In the 100 to get like a 46. Just to see 46 seconds up on the board would be great, and fingers crossed, maybe I can get a medal. Some icing on the cake.”

Park finished fourth in the team standings in the section meet in the Bluewater Aquatic Center in Apple Valley Friday.

LeMay won the 50-yard freestyle in a blazing 21.96 and was second in the 100-yard butterfly in 51.30. Asked if he surprised himself, he said yes.

“I did actually. I didn’t think I was able to do that, but I did,” said LeMay. “I was most happy with the 100 fly. I ended up dropping about a second in that so that’s pretty good.”

Glenna won the 100-yard freestyle in 47.90 and finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:44.60, qualifying for state in both races. It was a repeat section win for Glenna in the 100-yard freestyle. He won the event last season in a time of 48.53. Glenna also broke his own school record in the 100, topping his best of 48.25 set earlier in the season.

The Park 200-yard freestyle relay team of LeMay, Anderson, Darling and Glenna finished second in 1:29.10 and qualified for state. That same foursome was third in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:17.76, just missing the state qualifying standard.

Qualifying in the 200 relay was more or less what the Wolfpack swimmers expected,” said the Park swimmers.

“I know we have really good swimmers here, but I feel like we have a better sprinter team,” said Anderson.

“It wasn’t really a surprise for us. We knew that we wanted to go after the 200 free relay,” said Darling. “We knew it was our best chance and we were very happy that we were able to accomplish our goal of getting that 200 free record. Those guys in the 400 free relay were pretty fast when they were here last year but we were very happy to beat the 200 free relay record and get our names on the board.”

Park’s previous best in the 200 relay was 1:29.60. set by the team of R. Anderson, T. Horejsi, M. Moehrle and standout swimmer Nate Amidon in 1998. Glenna, however, is doing all he can to erase Amidon’s name from the Park school record board.

Numerous other Wolfpack swimmers placed in Saturday’s section finals.

Parker Jeseritz finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke in 58.62.

Nathan Johnson was fourth (1:02.53) and Mason Darling fifth (1:03.03) in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Mason Darling placed fifth in the 200-yard IM in 2:04.83. Jack Schweigert was 15th in the race in 2:13.41.

Park was seventh in the 200-yard medley relay with the team of Parker Jeseritz, Nathan Johnson, Schweigert and Mason Darling in a time of 1:46.53.

Anderson was 10th in the 100-yard freestyle in 51.29 and finished 11th in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.43.

Evan Darling was 15th in the 100-yard freestyle in 52.88.

Johnson finished 11th in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 57.33.

Jackson Harre placed 14th in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:15.58 and Parker Jeseritz was 15th in 5:21.08.

Schweigert finished 15th in the breaststroke in 1:08.78.

East Ridge’s swimmers won the Section 3AA team race with 457 points, followed by: 2, Rosemount, 368; 3, Eagan 301; 4, Park, 260; 5, Hastings 208; 6, Eastview, 207; 7, Apple Valley, 140; and 8, Woodbury, 128.

Park senior Matt Glenna swims to a section win and new school record in the 100-yard freestyle in 47.90. Photo by John Molene