By Bruce Karnick

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Hastings boys swimming travelled to Rochester for the Section meet on Friday to take on eight other teams in the Section 1AA tournament. Section 1AA has some very, very tough opponents in it and is likely one of the toughest sections in the state.

The Swim and Dive Tournament is both team and individual oriented. The top team moves on and then individual swimmers can also move on to the state meet. Lakeville South won the team side with a score of 393.5, Lakeville North finished second with 346. Northfield had 267, Rochester Century 258 and Farmington 250. Your Raiders finished sixth with a score of 246, ahead of Rochester Mayo at 199, Owatonna with 123.5 and Rochester John Marshall at 73.

A sixth-place finish means the team’s season is done, but that does not mean Hastings does not have representation at the state meet.

Junior Philip Jensen earned a trip to state with his performances in the 100-backstroke placing first in sections with a time of 52.01, more than a second faster than the second-place finisher. He also earned a spot by finishing second by .09 seconds in the 100-Butterfly.

Diver Ryan Lester will be joining Jensen after he placed second on Wednesday’s diving portion of the meet. Lester is returning to state with a score of 351.10.

Aside from the individual state honors earned by the Raiders, the team also earned a State Academic Silver Award. That award is for the team having a GPA of 3.59 or higher. This is the first Academic award earned in 15 years.

Head Coach Gerry Rupp had this to say, “A lot of things happened for this team in a ‘throw-away’ year. I’m so happy we got to participate, and so proud of all that they accomplished!”

The Swimming and Diving state tournament starts on March 18th and runs through the 20th.