Boys Swimming: A+ in Conditioning

Austin Kueck won the 500 freestyle

The Tigers tested their early season conditioning and scored an A+ Thursday night at Hopkins, defeating the Royals 99-84 in their second dual meet win in 24 hours.

"Last night was a great eye opener as to how much potential we really have," Tiger coach Ryan Hamen said.  "Looking at least year's meet against Hopkins, which was held at the same time of year, we are ahead overall from where we were a year ago."

Farmington garnered 10 of the 14 points available in the 200 medley relay, the first event of the night, and gradually extended its lead over the final 11 events.

Like the previous night's win over Hudson, the Tigers didn't score a lot of first place finishes (5) but piled up the points in places two through five.

Four Farmington individuals came through with victories, including Dan Berg in the 50 freestyle; Eric Schimmel in the 100 freestyle, Austin Kueck in the 500 freestyle and Jonathan Bovee in one-meter diving.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Schimmel, Adam Dougherty, Jonathan Kingbsury and Berg provided the other Tiger first place points.

"We lost Christopher Kirchmann, our big gun from last year," Hamen said, "But Berg, Schimmel and  Garrett Haugen are swimming faster than last year's seniors at this point."

Dan Berg 2 1st place finishes

A half dozen other Tiger entrants managed runner-up finishes, five individuals and a relay.

Individuals included Berg in the 100 freestyle; Dion in the 100 butterfly; Ben Gunderson in the 100 backstroke; Brooke Lange in the 200 freestyle and Nick Stephan in the 100 breaststroke.

The runner-up 200 medley relay team consisted of 200 medley grouping of Gunderson, Robin DeCastro, Brandon Dion and Haugen.

Seven more Tigers finished in third place: Spencer Kabran, 100 breaststroke; Oscar Hanifl, diving; Ian Alexander, 200 freestyle; Haugen, 200 individual medley; Schimmel. 50 freestyle; Lange, 100 butterfly and Gunderson, 500 freestyle.

In addition to the final score, Hamen expressed satisfaction with the way his swimmers have been pushing each other in practice.

"In the 100 back, Gunderson is almost breaking the minute mark and Haugen and David Bovee are close behind him," Hamen said.

"In our breaststroke, we didn't lose any swimmers from last year while Kabran, DeCastro, and Stephan continue to take the leads."

The Tigers resume their schedule on Dec. 28 when they compete in the Apple Valley Invitational at the Valley Middle School pool.