Ryan Ladika/MDN Magi freshman Ramiro Rodriguez competes in the 200-yard freestyle during Minot’s Friday evening meet.

Despite not hitting the pool in competitive action for almost two weeks, the Minot High boys’ swim & dive team did not skip a beat in their Friday evening dual with Grand Forks, remaining unbeaten in the 2021-22 campaign with a 138-45 victory at the Magic City Campus.

The Friday dual was originally scheduled to be a three-way clash for Minot with the KnightRiders and West Fargo, but the latter was unable to make the trip west due to unfavorable travel conditions.

For the Magicians, the victory represented their fourth in head-to-head action and built upon a trio of invitational victories spanning Dec. 11-Jan. 8.

“A great start to the season for sure,” Minot head coach Jake Solper said. “We’ve got an outstanding senior class that has really set the tone for the season. We’ve got a really profound junior class as well. Our upperclassmen are doing a great job of leading by example and keeping that really strong culture that our program has been able to maintain over the long haul.”

The Magi begun the evening clinching three of the top four spots in the 200-yard medley relay, led by a final 1:39.61 time produced by the quartet of Peyton Bartsch, Alex King, Jaxon Reinke and Grant Schaeffer, falling tenths of a second short of breaking the pool record time of 1:39.23.

Minot completed the 200-yard freestyle with three of the top four finishes in the night’s second event as well, led by Ryan Hubbard’s 1:55.62 final time and Levi VonBokern’s second-place mark of 1:56.69.

King, Oliver Roongin and Logan Hill swept the top three spots for the Magi in the 200-yard IM, producing marks of 2:03.51, 2:13.49 and 2:13.86, respectively, and Bartsch flew through the 50-yard freestyle in just 22.41 seconds to claim the top spot.

Alex Prestwich and Tristen Leys rounded out the top three in the event for Minot High, finishing in 23.83 and 24.47 seconds, respectively, and Reinke paced teammates King and Hubbard in the 100-yard fly with a winning mark of 54.44 seconds. The latter two finished second and third, respectively, with final times of 55.18 and 56.60.

Schaeffer claimed his first individual victory of the evening in the 100-yard freestyle, besting his five fellow swimmers with a final time of 48.49 seconds. Leys and Griffin Osborn third and fourth in the event, clocking in at 53.79 and 54.77 seconds, respectively.

Grand Forks claimed its first victory in the meet’s eighth event, the 500-yard freestyle, but Alex Moe and Prestwich earned the Magi second- and third-place finishes with final times of 5:46.44 and 5:51.51.

The Magi found their way back into the win column shortly after, when the quartet of Schaeffer, Reinke, Hubbard and King produced a winning 1:30.68 mark in the 200-yard freestyle relay ahead of second- and third-finishing Minot groups that rounded out the top three.

Bartsch locked up his second individual finish of the evening in the 100-yard backstroke, besting teammate Kalen Hill’s 1:01.11 mark by over four seconds with a 56.41 final time, and Reinke pulled in just ahead of freshman Logan Hill’s 1:04.37 with a 1:03.12 finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.

“We were really impressed with the newer guys we had on the team today,” Solper added. “They branched out a little bit, swam some events that they haven’t done yet this season and posted some pretty impressive times. It’s really nice to see when guys are willing to step out of their comfort zone and find some new potential strengths that they didn’t know that they had.”

Bartsch joined teammates Hubbard, Prestwich and Leys in a second-place 3:28.46 time in the 400-yard freestyle relay to complete the evening’s action in the lap pool, and Ty Ross snagged the top spot on the diving board with a 243.45 final score.

Minot will have a quick turnaround for their next dual, slated for Saturday, Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. against the Bismarck Legacy Sabers at the Magic City Campus.