Boys Swimming: Wingers take a nail-biter

Jonathan Bovee won the one-meter diving competition (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Red Wing won the final event of the night to eke out a 95-91 Missota Conference dual meet win over the Tigers Thursday night at Twin Bluff Middle School in Red Wing.

"There was some great competition tonight," Farmington coach Ryan Hamen said. "Red Wing has some great swimmers and they took a lot of firsts.

"It came down to the 400 freestyle relay where we already had our personal best time but their Tanner Alms pulled away on the last lap. We finished second and third but it wasn't quite enough."

The Tigers won only four of the meet's 12 events, but remained on the Wingers' heels all night thanks to points scored in the second through fifth positions.

Jonathan Bovee continued his strong season with a win in the one-meter diving competition. Other individual winners included Austin Kueck, 100 butterfly; Daniel Berg, 100 freestyle and Nick Stephan, 100 breaststroke.

Nick Stephan 100 breaststroke champion (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The visitors took second place in six events, four individual contests and two relays.

Individuals finishing in the runner-up spot included Ian Alexander in the 200 freestyle; Brandon Dion in the 200 medley; Eric Schimmel in the 50 freestyle and Kueck in the 100 backstroke.

The 200 medley relay team of Ben Gunderson, Robin DeCastro, Dion and Adam Dougherty scored second place points as did the 400 freestyle relay foursome of Schimmel, Dion, Garrett Haugen and Berg.

Six other Tigers finished in third place: Adam Dougherty, 50 freestyle; Sean Dougherty, diving; David Bovee, 100 backstroke; Spencer Kabran, 100 breaststroke; Gunderson, 200 individual medley and Schimmel, 500 freestyle.

This Saturday the Tigers will travel to South St. Paul for a big invitational meet and then they have a week of practice time to prepare for the Section 1AA True Team Championships which they host the following weekend at the Dodge Middle School pool.