The Hastings Raiders travelled to North St. Paul for their third dual meet of the season, and they easily defeated the Polars 93-80.

Hastings took the lead 10-4 in the first event, the 200-medley relay, and never looked back. Charlie Jensen, Isaac Schalk, Tristan Herbst and Thomas Foss finished the relay with a time of 1:57.43, nearly four full seconds ahead of the Polars.

Adam Duer then dominated the 200-freestyle with a time of 2:07.41, defeating the nearest Polar swimmer by nine seconds. The Raiders lost this event 7-9 but kept the lead of the meet 17-13.

The 200 individual medley was won by NSP, but Hastings won the event 9-7 with Oliver Gergen leading the way for Hastings. The team score was now 26-19.

Herbst placed first in the 50-freestyle by .02 of a second with a final time of 25.86 to North’s 25.88. North took the event 9-7 but Hastings still had the meet lead 33-28. This was the closest that the Polars would get to a lead the rest of the meet.

Hastings had two divers and North had none, so Hastings captured an easy 10 points to make the meet score 43-28. Then, in the 100 fly, Charlie Jensen and Garrett Watterson claimed first and second to give the Raiders a 12-3 event win extending the team lead to 55-31.

The two teams split the points on the 100 freestyle 8-8 and then Hastings dominated the 500-freestyle winning that event 13-3. Foss nabbed first with a time of 5:37.98, Duer claimed second with a 5:50.28 and James Jensen took third with a 6:02.01. The team score gap grew to 76-42.

Hastings grabbed first in the 200-freestyle relay and extended the team lead to 84-48 and in the final event that Hastings accepted points in, the 100 backstroke, they won the event 9-7 to make the team score 9355. The final of the meet was 93-80 Hastings.

“Swimmer of the meet was Tristan Herbst,” said Head Coach Katie McAlpin. “Tristan took first in all of his events, individual and relays. He is still undefeated this season! Tristan dropped six seconds in his 100 breaststroke and out touched his competition in both individual races. Extra shout out to Garrett Watterson for three best times, along with cutting three seconds in his 100-fly for a personal best time. Alex Culp gets a shout out as well for a six second cut in the 50-breaststroke during a relay.”

Hastings will host Tartan in a conference dual on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 6:00 p.m. Then on Friday, they host the start of True Team with diving on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and Swimming events on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.