Raiders set records at conference relays

For a few minutes of Thursday night’s Suburban East Conference relays, a Hastings relay team held a new meet record. The record was set in the 200 butterfly relay. The Hastings team of sophomores Hayden Schmitt, Thomas Everson, Brandon Underwood and Colby Smith set the new mark in the race with a time of 1 minute, 40.78 seconds.

By the time they got dried off, though, that record had been broken by a second. Hastings had swam in the second heat of the event and their record was broken by a team in the third heat.

Still, the second-place finish helped Hastings place sixth in the meet with 72 points. And, it wasn’t the only record set by the team. In the 4x100 individual medley relay, Hastings dominated with a time of 3:50.57, which set a new meet record. The second-place team from Stillwater was 12 seconds behind the Raiders. The same four swimmers were on that team, too.

Stillwater won the meet with 114 points and Mounds View was second with 110.

Ten teams competed in the meet.

Hastings had one other first-place finish, with Schmitt, Everson, Underwood and Smith taking the top spot in the 800 freestyle relay.

Coach Gerry Rupp was encouraged by what he saw at the meet.

“We wanted to get the guys in the pool to see what they could do in racing situations,” Rupp said. “Our young guys responded well to their first varsity competition. They weren’t overwhelmed. They went out, swam hard and things are looking bright.”

Hastings doesn’t have a senior on the roster this season. The team is paced by a number of talented underclassmen, including Underwood, who had an especially strong meet, Rupp said.

“We really noticed Brandon,” he said. “He was just wild – he was flying. Hunter Sassor had a good meet, too, and Cole Tipler has really come on in the last year.

Sassor is one of the team’s captains this year.

John Utecht has also been named a captain. Both are juniors.

Results went like this:

400 medley relay — team of John Utecht, Hunter Sassor, Elijah Reilly and Cole Tipler, sixth, 4:04.32; team of Bobby Moore, Mikey Everson, Cole Scully and Aaron McCullough, 15th, 4:41.13.

200 freestyle relay – team of Kenny Benson, Steven Kimmes, Jack VanZee and Jack Weldon, ninth, 1:46.67.

4x100 IM relay – team of Thomas Everson, Hayden Schmitt, Brandon Underwood and Colby Smith, first, 3:50.57; team of Scully, Moore, McCullough and Weldon, 12th, 4:48.34.

200 butterfly relay – team of Schmitt, Thomas Everson, Underwood and Smith, second, 1:40.78; team of Weldon, Scott Christensen, Cal Gergen and Benson, 13th, 2:07.02.

800 freestyle relay – team of Thomas Everson, Underwood, Schmitt and Smith, first, 7:34.75; team of Steven Kimmes, Scully, McCullough and Mikey Everson, 13th, 9:27.80.

200 backstroke relay – team of Patrick Clark, Logan Lauder, Erik Christensen and Gergen, 12th, 2:24.14.

200 breaststroke relay – team of Sassor, Reilly, Moore and VanZee, fourth, 2:12.19; team of Lauder, Ethan Kimmes, Alex Hagen and Christensen, 14th, 2:37.44.

400 freestyle relay – team of Tipler, Utecht, Reilly and Sassor, eighth, 3:43.29; team of Steven Kimmes, Mikey Everson, Patrick Clark and Lauder, 17th, 4:14.07.

Tags: raider swimming, sports, hastings, minnesota, spiral, prep