ST. CLOUD-Brainerd's 200-yard freestyle relay of Tristan Dawson, Andy Dillon, Griffin Blegen and Connor Lund placed first with a 1:29.98 time as the Brainerd Warriors finished first overall with a team score of 358 in the Section 8-2A finals Saturday, Feb. 23.
"We have a situation where Tristan leads off the relay because he has the backstroke right after that event," Warriors head coach John Zemke said. "Connor Lund is on that relay and he's coming off the 500 which is right before that event so we have to be creative with our lineup.
"We had Connor anchor it. We figured we would have a lead and we just needed him to hang on and he did by 1/100th of a second."
Blegen recorded a second-place finish in the 50 freestyle as well as fifth in the 100 free. Dawson also took second in the 100 backstroke and Dillon was second in the 200 IM.
Connor Lund finished fourth in the 200 free followed by Mason Kuepers in sixth. Lund was also fourth in the 500 and Kuepers moved up to fifth place.
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Cade Rosenwald was fourth in the IM. He and Tristan Dawson tied for fifth in the butterfly.
"It was just an incredible day, going into the meet we made up 81 points from Friday," Zemke said. "(Saturday) was just a barnburner and the kids just performed so well I was so proud of all of them.
"Going into that last relay we were doing the math on who we needed to win that relay if it wasn't us in order to win the meet and it worked out about as best as it could. That was the closest meet I've ever been around going to about 25 of those things."
Team scores: 1-Brainerd 358, 2-St. Michael-Albertville 357, 3-Elk River 352, 4-Maple Grove 342, 5-Buffalo-Maple Lake 260, 6-Moorhead 190
200 medley relay: 1-Maple Grove 1:39.01, 5-Brainerd (Thomas Ruhl, Jacob VanRisseghem, Cade Rosenwald, Dylan Paulson) 1:44.54
200 freestyle: 1-Max Menzemer (Buffalo) 1:47.50, 4-Connor Lund (Brainerd) 1:49.90, 6-Mason Kuepers (Brainerd) 1:51.47, 14-BadenBastien 1:58.43
200 individual medley: 1-Ezra Dickerson (St. Michael-Albertville) 1:59.47, 2-Andy Dillon (Brainerd) 2:00.15 4-Cade Rosenwald (Brainerd) 2:05.89, 14-Parker Tatge 2:12:33, 16 -Thomas Ruhl 2:14.62
50 freestyle: 1-Zack Kopp (Elk River) 21.44, 2-Griffen Blegen (Brainerd) 22.11, 13-Dylan Paulson 23.83, 16-Ethan Hebert 24.6
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Diving: 1-Quincy Kabe (Buffalo) 402.00, 6-Izaac Herrlich (Brainerd) 330.10, 9-Cruz Lemmerhirt (Brainerd) 314.80, 19-David Rollins 165.25
100 butterfly: 1-Kelby Modene (Maple Grove) 51.44, 5t-Cade Rosenwald (Brainerd) 56.05, 5t-Tristan Dawson (Brainerd) 56.05
100 freestyle: 1-Zack Kopp (Elk River) 5-Griffin Blegen (Brainerd) 49.34, 6-Andy Dillon (Brainerd) 49.55, 13-Paulson 52.05
500 freestyle: 1-Ethan Lemke (Moorhead) 4:56.74, 4-Connor Lund (Brainerd) 5:04.00, 5-Mason Kuepers (Brainerd) 5:06.39, 13-Tennyson Kelm 5:22.93, 14-Bastien 5:22.98
200 freestyle relay: 1-Brainerd (Tristan Dawson, Andy Dillon, Griffin Blegen, Connor Lund) 1:29.98
100 backstroke: 1-Ezra Dickerson (St. Michael-Albertville) 53.46, 2-Tristan Dawson (Brainerd) 54.51, 11-Ruhl 59.86, 16 -Lance Zemke 1:03.48
100 breaststroke: 1-Kelby Modene (Maple Grove) 57.55, 5-Cody Evans (Brainerd) 1:03.19, 9-Parker Tatge 1:06.15, 11-Jacob VanRisseghem 1:07.72
400 freestyle relay: 1-St. Michael-Albertville 3:17.07, 3- Brainerd (Andy Dillon, Connor Lund, Tristan Dawson, Griffin Blegen) 3:18.69
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Next: Brainerd in Class 2A State Meet at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (diving prelims) 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, (swimming prelims) 6 p.m. Friday, March 1.
