Blue Jay swimmers finish season strong

Speed was the word of the weekend at the state swimming meet in Grand Forks.

All 10 teams in Grand Forks had at least 74 percent improvement, including Jamestown High School, which finished its season with a 90 percent drop in time.

“It was a nice weekend,” coach Marney Shirley. “It was a fitting way for the kids to go out.”

The Blue Jays finished with 91 points, getting five individual state placers and two more in relays.

The only blip for the Blue Jays came in the 200 free relay where they were disqualified for an early start.

“If you look at both days as a whole, the boys swam great,” Shirley said. “We were shooting for the school record in the 200 free relay, so we didn’t get that, which was too bad. But otherwise, things went really well.”

After setting school records in the 50 (21.95) and 100 (549.10) on Saturday, freshman Willy Marler was slightly off on Saturday, but still placed eighth in the ‘A’ final in both to cap off his all-state season.

“Willy had a tough day. His times were still very good, just not as fast as Friday when he was amazing,” Shirley said. “You look at his age and the age of the other kids in his events and his future looks really bright.”

Landon Ostlie’s fourth-place finish in the 200 individual medley was the top finish for the Jays. The sophomore earned second-team all-state honors in a time of 2:05.11, breaking his own school record.

Ostlie and senior Seth Roscoe gave the Jays two of the top 14 times in the butterfly. Ostlie won the ‘B’ final in a time of 56.71, while Roscoe touched in 1:00.11 — also a personal best.

“Seth swam out of his tree. After he was done, we were like, where did that come from,” Shirley said. “The only bad thing about that is that he’s a senior.”

After the 200 free team was disqualified, the 400 team rebounded by setting a new school record of 3:28.87 for a solid seventh-place finish.

A quick first leg by Roscoe (53.65) was the key. Tate Carlson, Ostlie and Marler brought it home.

“(After the 200) those kids regrouped. They swam from the heart and did a great job,” Shirley said.

The 200 medley quartet of Dave Reimers, Blake Harris, Logan Rasmussen and Roscoe also set a season-best, placing ninth in 1:52.98, nearly three seconds better than their previous top time. All four had personal-best splits.

West Fargo snapped Minot’s streak of 10 straight state titles emphatically, piling up 428 points. Mandan (286) was second, Bismarck (278) third and the Magicians (274) fourth.

“The whole meet was unreal with how great the times were,” Shirley said. “The coaches all said it had to have been the fastest state meet ever. There’s an awful lot of good swimmers in the state.”

N.D. state tournament

At UND’s Hyslop pool

Saturday

Team totals

West Fargo 428, Mandan 286, Bismarck 278, Minot 274, Fargo South 238, Grand Forks 198, Williston 187, Fargo North 143, Jamestown 91, Bismarck Century 63.

Top 8 and JHS results

200 medley relay — 1. West Fargo (Jake Weible, Zach Cormican, Austin Keller, Eric Benson) 1:38.22; 2. Mandan 1:40.29; 3. Minot 1:40.76; 4. Bismarck 1:40.98; 5. Williston 1:43.87; 6. Fargo North 1:45.70; 7. Fargo South 1:45.97; 8. Century 1:51.26; 9. Jamestown (Dave Reimers, Blake Harris, Logan Rasmussen, Seth Roscoe) 1:52.98; 10. Grand Forks 1:59.53.

200 freestyle — 1. Spencer Wheeling, Minot, 1:48.48; 2. Daniel Hulbert, WF, 1:48.82; 3. Jake Reopelle, FS, 1:48.83; 4. Eric Nagel, Bismarck, 1:48.86; 5. Alan Repak, WF, 1:50.69; 6. Michael Kocsis, GF, 1:51.98; 7. Adam Smestad, WF, 1:52.65; 8. Dylan Schafer, Mandan, 1:53.14.

200 individual medley — 1. Ian Ballantyne, Bismarck, 1:58.55; 2. Ethan Nimens, GF, 1:59.67; 3. Sam Ellison, Mandan, 1:59.86; 4. Landon Ostlie, Jamestown, 2:05.11; 5. Austin Keller, WF, 2:06.47; 6. Jared Sykora, WF, 2:09.36; 7. Ethan Doll, WF, 2:10.35; 8. Brandon Hamel, Minot, 2:10.64.

50 freestyle — 1. Ben Griggs, FS, :20.53; 2. Cormican, WF, :21.19; 3. Herberholz, Mandan, :21.32; 4. Duncan, FS, :21.94; 5. Lee Greuel, Minot, :21.98; 6. Eric Benson, WF, :22.20; 7. Thomas Johnson, Bismarck, :22.27; 8. Willy Marler, Jamestown, :22.29.

Diving — 1. Jordan Barth, Mandan, 426.55; 2. Devin Aune, Mandan, 416.65; 3. Nathanial Polak, Minot, 388.10; 4. Andrew Wangler, Bismarck, 378.00; 5. Alex Dorner, GF, 331.30; 6. Jordan Laske, Mandan, 324.15; 7. Joe Haaland, Mandan, 286.05; 8. Justin Gibson, WF, 270.10.

100 butterfly — 1. Joe Burns, Minot, :54.04; 2. Keller, WF, :54.71; 3. Sykora, WF, :53.35; 4. Heim, Bismarck, :55.38; 5. Isaac Loegering, GF, :55.69; 6. Eric Benson, WF, :56.47; 7. Zech Morgan, Bismark, :56.94; 8. David Stockdill, Mandan, :58.08.

JHS results

9, Ostlie, 56.71; Seth Roscoe, 1:00.11.

100 freestyle — 1. Griggs, FS, 45.98; 2. Herberholz, Mandan, :7.15; 3. Jake Weible, WF, 47.85; 4. Nagel, Bismarck, 47.99; 5. Reopelle, FS, 48.38; 6. Thomas Johnson, Bismarck, 49.12; 7. Hulbert, WF, 49.36; 8. Marler, Jamestown, 50.27.

500 freestyle — 1. Ethan Doll, WF, 4:56.82; 2. Repak, WF, 5:01.07; 3. Wheeling, Minot, 5:02.01; 4. Michael Kocsis, GF, 5:06.06; 5. Sean Rider, FN, 5:06.13; 6. Leegard, GF, 5:10.49; 7. Brandon Shaffer, Williston, 5:12.06; 8. Branden Smith, WF, 5:15.20.

200 freestyle relay — 1. Fargo South (Griggs, Skjold, Reopelle, Duncan) 1:26.65; 2. Bismarck 1:29.43; 3. West Fargo 1:31.76; 4. Grand Forks 1:31.82; 5. Minot 1:32.34; 6. Williston 1:32.39; 7. Fargo North 1:33.60; 8. Mandan 1:34.14; 9. Century 1:42.90.

100 backstroke — 1. Weible, WF, :53.22; 2. Nimens, GF, :54.76; 3. Burns, Minot, :56.66; 4. Brandon Sullivan, Williston, :56.75; 5. Loegering, GF, :57.53; 6. Smestad, WF, :57.85; 7. Heim, Bismarck, :58.42; 8. Duncan, FS, :58.63.

100 breaststroke — 1. Ellison, Mandan, :59.70; 2. Ballantyne, Bismarck, 1:00.50; 3. Cormican, WF, 1:01.93; 4. Jordan Richardson, FN, 1:03.34; 5. Stockdill, Mandan, 1:04.53; 6. Hamel, Minot, 1:04.76; 7. Taylor Thompson, Williston, 1:06.36; 8. Ronald Rudser, Minot, 1:06.46.

400 freestyle relay — 1. Fargo South (Griggs, Skjold, Reopelle, Duncan) 3:13.05; 2. West Fargo 3:15.56; 3. Bismarck 3:17.44; 4. Minot 3:18.99; 5. Mandan 3:19.17; 6. Grand Forks 3:23.20; 7. Jamestown (Roscoe, Tate Carlson, Ostlie, Marler) 3:28.87; 8. Williston 3:28.90; 9. Fargo North 3:36.20; 10. Century 3:39.31.

All-state

First team

Mandan — Devin Aune, Jordan Barth, Sam Ellison, Nick Herberholz, David Stockdill; Bismarck — Ian Ballantyne, Justin Heim, Thomas Johnson, Zech Morgan, Eric Nagel; West Fargo — Eric Benson, Zach Cormican, Ethan Doll, Daniel Hulbert, Austin Keller, Alan Repak, Adam Smestad, Jared Sykora, Jacob Weible; Minot — Joe Burns, Lee Greuel, Nathanial Polak, Spencer Wheeling; Fargo South — Patrick Duncan, Ben Griggs, Jacob Reopelle, Khale Skjold; Grand Forks — Isaac Loegering, Ethan Nimens; Jamestown — Willy Marler; Williston — Brandon Sullivan, Jordan Hahn; Fargo North — Jordan Richardson

Second team

Minot — Kalvin Brown, Brandon Hamel; Williston — Michael Farrenkopf, Nathan Pepple; Bismarck — Weston Glasser, Andrew Wrangler; Mandan — Jesse Heck, Dylan Schafer, Jacob Wanner; Grand Forks — Michael Kocsis, Kristofer Leegard; Fargo South — Vernon Newman, Matt Stinar; Fargo North — Obe Obembe, Elliott Radebaugh, Sean Rider; Jamestown — Landon Ostlie

Senior athlete of the year — Spencer Wheeling, Minot

Coach of the year — Marsha Dahl, West Fargo

Sun sports writer Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, swimming, state, meet