Park boys swimming & diving: Diver Gelbmann earns trip to state

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With his finish at sections, Park junior Tyler Gelbmann earned a trip to the 2010 Class 2A state swimming and diving meet and will represent the Wolfpack on the state’s biggest stage.

Gelbmann earned his first trip to state after finishing in fourth place overall with a score of 254.75 at the Section 4AA meet, held Thursday, Feb. 25 to Saturday, Feb. 27 at Stillwater Junior High School. Woodbury senior Andy Dixon won the event with a score of 337.10.

As a team, Park finished in fifth place with a score of 155 points, behind fourth-place Woodbury, which scored 237 points and ahead of sixth-place North St. Paul, which scored 149 points. Stillwater won the meet with 548 points.

Other than Gelbmann, Park’s closest finisher to reaching state was the boys 200-meter individual medley relay team of sophomores Conner Rand and Travis Dorsch, junior Nicholas Bibeau and senior Dallas Campbell, which took fourth place in the event with a time of 1:50.22. The winner of the 200 IM was Mounds View with a 1:38.57 time and the state-qualifying time was 1:42.65.

Last year, the Park boys swimming and diving team didn’t send an individual swimmer or diver to state. The last Wolfpack team member to reach state was diver Jordan Hagen, a 2008 graduate, two years ago.

This year’s state meet will start on Thursday, March 4, and run through Saturday, March 6 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The Class AA diving preliminaries begin on Thursday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m., with Gelbmann slated to dive fifth in the rotation. The Class AA championship finals of all events begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 6.

Tags: cottage grove, sports, swimming, wolfpack