Park boys swimming & diving: Wolfpack takes third place at Woodbury Invitational

The Park boys swimming and diving team continued its stretch of solid performances in its most recent meet – taking third place at the seven-team Woodbury Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Park scored 351.5 points in the meet. Woodbury won five events to win its own invitational. The Royals totaled 489.5 points in the meet, edging second-place Orono, which scored 434 points.

“I’m really excited for the season and what the boys can accomplish,” Park head coach Amanda Johnson said. “We are working on keeping ourselves physically and mentally in with all our opponents.”

At the Woodbury invite, Park finished in third place in the 200-yard medley relay as Connor Rand, Travis Dorsch, Jarrett Mansergh and Nick Wheelock earned a time of 1 minute, 52.41 seconds. Richfield won the event in a time of 1:43.01. The Wolfpack also earned fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle relay as Dorsch, Matt Henry, Mansergh and Adam Raymond had a time of 1:41.45, and took fourth place in the 400-yard freestyle relay as Raymond, Henry, Eric Solem and Rand finished with a time of 3:44.72.

Individually, Raymond took third place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.02 and was followed by Henry, who had a time of 2:01.73. Also, Dorsch earned third place with a time of 1:07.56 in the 100-yard breaststroke and finished in sixth place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:02.78 and Rand earned seventh place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.72 and eighth place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.67. In the diving competition, Nick Germscheid finished in third place with 220.05 points.

Prior to the invite, Park fell 90-88 to Cretin-Derham Hall in a head-to-head Suburban East Conference meet on Thursday, Dec. 15.

The meet went down to the wire as the Raiders only locked up a win with two events remaining – after taking first and second place in the 100-yard breaststroke to take a 90-76 lead.

Park had a 60-60 tie with Cretin-Derham Hall eight events into the meet.

Down 55-49 Park earned first, third and fourth places in the 500-yard freestyle to even the score with the Raiders. Raymond won the event with a time of 5:14.08. Mack Christianson was third (5:51.87) and Aaron Lewis took fourth (6:06.48).

However, from that point, Cretin-Derham Hall pulled away.

In addition to the 500 free, Park’s top event of the meet was the 200-yard freestyle. Henry touched the wall first in the event with a time of 2:00.79, just ahead of teammate Aaron Lewis, who took second place in 2:12.68.

Also, Rand earned second place in the 200-yard medley relay and in the 100-yard freestyle, Dorsch finished second in the 200-yard individual medley (2:21.33) and in the 100-yard backstroke (1:03.71), Raymond was second in the 50-yard freesyle (24.37), Germscheid took second in diving (155 points) and Solem earned second in the 100-yard butterfly (1:03.45).

The close loss to Cretin-Derham Hall came on the heels of the team opening the season with an eighth place finish out of 10 teams at the Suburban East Conference relays.

At the annual relay-only meet, held at Stillwater Junior High School, on Thursday, Dec. 8, Park scored 34 points to top Roseville (18 points) and White Bear Lake (16 points.) Forest Lake (40 points) finished in seventh place. Stillwater, which scored 114 points, won the meet, just ahead of second-place Mounds View with 110 points and third place East Ridge with 98 points.

“We did really well for our 1st meet of the season,” Johnson said. “The boys had some respectable times to start the season out.”

At the conference relays, Park’s best finish came with an impressive effort in the 200-yard backstroke relay as the Wolfpack finished in fourth place with a time of 1:58.56. Park relay team members were seniors Connor Rand and Nick Wheelock and freshmen Jarrett Mansergh and Adam Raymond. Stillwater won the event with a time of 1:46.95.

The Wolfpack took on non-conference foe Tartan on Tuesday, Jan. 3, after the Bulletin went to print. Next, Park hosts SEC power Stillwater on Thursday, Jan. 5, at Cottage Grove Middle School.

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