By Bruce Karnick

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The Raiders traveled to the Grove Aquatic Center to take on the Spartans of Simley. Hastings, Simley and St. Thomas Academy have been the top three teams in the conference for a long time. It is a fun rivalry between the three schools and the path to the conference championship starts with the first victory over the other teams.

Hastings took the lead with the first race, the 200 medley relay. The team of Philip Jensen, Caleb Urban, Adam Duer and John Destross took first with a 1:43.97. Charlie Jensen, Oliver Gergen, Taylor Schmaltz and Obbe Haveman finished third with 1:57.18. Hastings was up 10-4.

In the 200 freestyle one of the states top swimmers, Nico Losinski was up for Simley and he nabbed first with 1:44.67, but swimming is all about team points. Hastings still had the lead with Tristan Herbst taking third with 1:57.35, Isaac Shalk, fourth with 2:04.27 and Thomas Foss fifth 2:04.53. Hastings was still up, 16-14.

In the 200 individual medley, Urban took first with 2:05.35, Schmaltz took third with 2:17.35 and Haveman fifth with 2:28.70. Hastings had the edge 26-20.

The 50 freestyle is one of those races that makes one ponder just how a person can move that much water.Philip Jensen finished first with a 22.86, Destross second with 23.33 and Tyler Wood fifth with 26.85. Hastings extended the lead 37-25.

Swim meets can be changed in the blink of an eye. A disqualification or a random off night and boom, your opponent gains 13 points to your two.

In diving, Simley went 1,2,3 and Hastings only had one diver, Charlie Jensen and just like that, the Hastings lead was 39-37 after diving.

In the 100 butterfly Duer finished first with 56.11, and Schalk took third with 1:02.64 which was good enough to give Hastings a little cushion, 48-45.

For the 100 freestyle, Destross finished second behind Losinski with a 53.73 and Schmaltz finished fourth with 54.03, just .12 out of third. Hastings was officially trailing for the first time all meet, 54-55.

With five races left, the match up of Simley versus Hastings was an exciting one. Hastings led through six events, could they swing the tide back to their side? The marathon race, the 500 freestyle was next. Herbst locked down first place with 5:07.35, a clean 12 seconds faster than second place. Third place went to Foss with a 5:35.40. Hastings was back to a one-point lead, 63-62.

The 200 free relay is just as chaotic and fast as the 50 free and Hastings managed to win second and third. The team of Destross, Schmaltz, Herbst and Gergen finished with a 1:39.85. Schalk, Wood, Nick Kohn and Foss had a 1:48.30. Hastings trailed 69-70 with three events to go.

The 100 backstroke is one of Philip Jensen’s strongest races and he nabbed first with a 59.20. Duer took third with 1:03.30 and Haveman fifth with 1:10.14. Hastings 79, Simley 76.

The 100 breaststroke was won by Urban with 1:05.24, Gergen took third with 1:13.07 and Charlie Jensen fourth with 1:13.78. Hastings was up to their biggest lead all night, 9081.

The final race would decide the night. If Simley took both first and second, they win 93-92. Hastings needed at least a second-place finish to win the dual. Simley took the lead with the first swimmer and Philip Jensen, the second swimmer for Hastings took the lead back on his leg. Herbst increased the lead by just a few lengths and Hastings was ahead by 2.65 seconds when Simley’s Losinski went into the pool. Urban fought hard to keep the lead but Losinski was just too fast and had a good 20-minute additional rest over Urban. Simley took first place by 96 hundredths of a second. That gave the Hastings relay of Duer, Philip Jensen, Herbst and Urban second place with a time of 3:30.22.

That was not the only close relay. The race between third and fourth came down to .06 of a second with the Hastings relay of Schalk, Foss, Haveman and Jensen taking third with a time of 3:56.98.

The final on the night, Hastings 96, Simley 89.

Assistant Coach Katie McAlpin was proud of the boys’ performance with the score being so close all night.

“It was a battle to the last relay. Every single person had a best time in at least one event, many more than one. Our swimmers of the meet were Kenrick O’Donnell and Thomas Foss. Kenrick cut four seconds off his lifetime best in his 50 free and 20 seconds off his lifetime best in the 100 fly. He also won the JV 100 fly. Thomas had two lifetime best times, cutting nine sec in the 200 free and 27 sec in the 500 free. He also had fifth and third place finishes in his varsity events.”

Hastings travels to John Glen Junior High to take on North St. Paul on January 20 at 6:00 p.m. then they travel to St. Catherine’s College to take on Cretin-Derham Hall on January 25 at 6:00 p.m. They host South St. Paul at 6:00 p.m. on January 27.