Magi swimming & diving takes first at Minot Invite
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Back to back days of competition is something the Magicians are going to have to get used to when it comes to the state meet, and they got their first taste of having to compete two days in a row this weekend.
After sweeping the competition Friday, the Magi went on to win their home Minot Invitational Saturday with a total score of 783, defeating Mandan (448), Williston (376), Grand Forks (302) and Bismarck High (192).
"All in all, our team did a really nice job," MHS head coach Jake Solper said. "It's the second day of a two-day competition and it can be pretty tough for the guys to be hanging around the times they posted earlier this season."
Most of the Magi were able to hang around times previously posted in the season.
The meet size also contributed to the competition level. Getting five teams in the same pool can push everyone to faster personal best times.
"The guys had enough time to get a little rest (between events)," Solper said. "But there was also enough competition at every ability level so everybody got to be pushed a little bit."
Minot junior Zac Spaulding carried his momentum from Friday to continue to drop time in his events Saturday. He took first in the 200 freestyle while cutting almost two seconds off his season best time for a first place finish at 1:55.31. Grant Schaeffer, Peyton Huss and Keegan Summers finished third, fourth and fifth in the event for the Magicians.
In an event Spaulding doesn't typically swim, he cut time to finish not even a second behind sophomore Dominic Yoder, who took third at state last year, in the 100 backstroke.
"It really kind of shows Zac's versatility as a swimmer," Solper said. "I joked around with him at the end of the meet today that we might be having to swim him in the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke at state...It's nice to see guys are motivated to post the best times they can post in whatever events they swim."
William Walker-Rozo and Jack Wolsky finished first and second in the 200 individual medley. Walker-Rozo finished with a 2:04.96 with Wolsky right behind at 2:06.95.
Flooding the 50 freestyle, Minot High took first through sixth in the event. Leading the pack was senior Steve Novak at 24.03 followed by Alexander King cutting almost a second, Levi VonBokern, Dominic Yoder, Peyton Bartsch and Griffin Schaeffer.
Winning his second individual event of the day, Walker-Rozo took first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.43. Huss came in third for the Magi with Novak finishing fourth.
Mandan's T.J. Reinhardt took first in the 100 freestyle with a 52.07 followed by a pack of Magicians. Alexander King took second, Griffin Schaeffer took third cutting almost a second off his time and Levi VonBokern took fourth.
Freshman Grant Schaeffer dropped over two seconds in the 500 freestyle to take first with a 5:20.87. Josh Boen came in third for the Magi with a 5:43.84.
In the diving well, Layton King and Reece Pederson continued to be on top. King finished first in the even with a score of 373.80 followed by Pederson at 357.95. Mason Robertson took sixth with a final score of 295.55. The divers missed the opportunity to compete against the current top diver in the state Johnny Mindt of Mandan who didn't compete Saturday.
However, King and Pederson are both ranked within the top 10 in the state in diving, with eight of the top 10 divers being from the West region.
As far as where the swimmers are shaping up to the rest of the state, Solper said it's going to be hard to tell and you never know how different teams will swim regular season meets.
"I know some teams are getting kind of close to their peak yardage for the season so not every team is going to have the greatest weekend next weekend," Solper said. "For our team, with our style of training, it's going to be kind of status quo next weekend just like it was for this weekend."
Up this week is a lot of sprinting and high intensity workouts for the Magi, so they won't exactly be going into West Fargo with fresh legs as they face another back to back competition weekend. While they might not be post personal best, Solper is expecting the team to hang around what the have been swimming the past few weeks.
After Friday, the Magicians have seen every team in the West but are still missing a few teams in the East.
"Maybe, in years past, (this) would've made it kind of a mysterious situation until you were able to meet up with the other teams at competition but now with the technology we have, the North Dakota High School Activities Association puts out all the state qualifiers and their top times each week," Solper said.
Each week, the Magi are able to look and kind of track where their times are stacking up against teams they haven't seen yet with the state qualifying sheets and the Meet Mobile application that shows different meets happening across the state.
"We won't be coming into it completely blind as to what we might see," Solper said. "But it is always fun to be able to interact with the coaches and athletes of those teams we don't get to see very often."
The Magicians will travel to West Fargo Friday for a dual with West Fargo beginning at 4 p.m. at West Fargo High School. Then they will gear up for the West Fargo Invite Saturday, beginning at 10:30 a.m., where they will see Bismarck Century, Bismarck High, Jamestown, Bismarck Legacy, Mandan, West Fargo and Williston at the Hulbert Aquatics Center.