Ponies prove to be too deep: Stillwater beat Hastings in SEC dual meet, 96-82

The Stillwater Ponies are one of the state’s strongest teams. For starters, the Ponies have some good top-end swimmers. In addition to that, they have a huge team, at least in comparison to the one that Hastings brings to the deck every night.

The Ponies have twice the swimmers as the Raiders, and that depth showed in last week’s Suburban East Conference meet between the two schools. Stillwater won, 96-82.

“It was a tale of two situations,” coach Gerry Rupp said. “My top four guys outswam their top four guys, but their second-tier swimmers are just better than mine at this point. That’s what we expected. We’re just not there yet. We’re still really young.”

Hastings doesn’t have a single senior on the roster this season.

The meet was close through the first several events, and it included some incredibly close finishes.

Thomas Everson had a couple great swims, but in both he was touched-out by a Stillwater opponent. In the 200 individual medley, Everson finished just two hundredths of a second behind Stillwater’s Vince Radecke. Radecke had a time of 2 minutes, 2.82 seconds. Everson had a time of 2:02.84.

In the 500 freestyle, Everson had a similar outcome. Radecke touched him out, finishing in 4:58.90. Everson had a time of 4:59.20. Down the stretch, Everson almost caught Radecke, cutting three seconds from his personal best this year and finishing his last 50 yards in just 27.8 seconds. Radecke, though, got the win.

Jack Weldon was the Hastings swimmer of the meet. He had season-best times in all four of his swims. He is an eighth-grader.

Results from the meet went like this:

200 medley relay – team of Brandon Underwood, Colby Smith, Hayden Schmitt and Thomas Everson, first, 1:43.02; team of Ken Benson, Hunter Sassor, Cole Tipler and Elijah Reilly, fourth, 1:52.05.

200 freestyle – Smith, first, 1:52.24; Steven Kimmes, fifth, 2:05.24; John Utecht, 2:06.98.

200 individual medley – Thomas Everson, second, 2:02.84; Sassor, fifth, 2:16.86; Jack VanZee, sixth, 2:21.07.

50 freestyle – Schmitt, second, 23.30; Reilly, fifth, 24.93; Cole Scully, sixth, 25.95.

100 butterfly – Schmitt, first, 57.43; Reilly, fourth, 1:01.12; Tipler, fifth, 1:03.36.

100 freestyle – Underwood, first, 49.83; Utecht, fifth, 55.73; Scully, sixth, 58.61.

500 freestyle – Everson, second, 4:59.20; Kimmes, fourth, 5:34.50; VanZee, fifth, 5:35.44.

200 freestyle relay – team of Utecht, Reilly, Kimmes and VanZee, fourth, 1:44.63; team of Scully, Tipler, Jack Weldon and Aaron McCullough, 1:46.03.

100 backstroke – Underwood, first, 57.24; Benson, fifth, 1:03.81; Moore, sixth, 1:13.11.

100 breaststroke – Smith, first, 1:05.93; Sassor, second, 1:10.05; Tipler, third, 1:12.89.

400 freestyle relay – team of Benson, McCullough, Michael Everson and Moore, first, 4:06.62; team of Cal Gergen, Weldon, Alec Hagen and Ethan Kimmes, second, 4:21.35.

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