The first sports season of the 2024-25 school year wrapped up this weekend as the boys swim team competed in the MSHSAA Class 1 State Meet at the St. Peter's Rec-Plex. The team qualified in all three relays as well as seven individual events. The state meet consists of a preliminary round on the first day with 32 individuals or relay teams competing in each event. The top 16 times earn the opportunity to come back on day two and swim in either the consolation (places 9 to 16) or championship (places 1 to 8) final. The championship races on day two determine the medal stand placements while both races award team points.
The 200 Yard Medley Relay kicks off the event. The Westminster team of Ivan Wang (backstroke), Harrison Frost (breaststroke), Noah Hyatt (butterfly), and Joey Schloss (freestyle) entered as the fifth seed and finished with the fourth best preliminary time on the first day. Swimming in lane six in the championship heat on Saturday, the team improved their qualifying time by over two seconds to finish in 1:37.94 and  fourth place earning 30 team points.
The Cats took event two (200 Yard Freestyle) off with no qualifiers but were back in the pool with freshman Ivan Wang swimming in the 200 Yard Individual Medley. Ivan qualified with the seventh best time and knocked almost three seconds off that time in the preliminary round to finish fifth. In the medal race, Ivan swam a time of 1:52.91 to finish in fourth place earning 15 team points. Ivan dropped an incredible 4.3 seconds from his qualifying time.
Event four, the 50 Yard Freestyle, promotes itself as the high intensity sprint event. If you blink, you might miss it! Senior Joey Schloss entered the meet as the tenth qualifying time meaning that if seeds held, he would earn a berth in the consolation finals. Facing a small mountain to climb to earn a state medal, Joey shaved a quarter of a second off of his time to finish with the seventh best preliminary time and earn a spot in the medal race. A swim of 22.26 seconds in lane one of the championship race earned a seventh place medal and 12 team points.
Senior Noah Hyatt raced in the 100 Yard Butterfly in the sixth event (diving is event five but held before the swim races) finishing with a time of 56.62, consistent with his qualifying time. This time placed him 22nd in the preliminary races.
Westminster qualified two individuals for event seven, the 100 Yard Freestyle. Sophomore Harrison Frost entered as the seventh seed and secured a medal with an eighth place finish on day one. The day one finish held as Harrison finished in eighth place with a time of 48.71 to earn 11 team points. Joey Schloss earned the opportunity to return on day two to swim in the consolation race and earn points for his team with a 16th place finish. Joey improved his time to climb to 13th place touching the wall in 50.31 to earn four points.
The team did not have a qualifier for the 500 Yard Freestyle marathon but returned for the 200 Yard Free Relay in event nine. Harrison Frost, Joey Schloss, Noah Hyatt, and Ivan Wang improved upon their 12th place entry by dropping almost two seconds and finishing in sixth place on the first day to put themselves into medal contention. Swimming in lane seven, the team compiled a time of 1:29.22, good for third place and 32 team points.
Ivan was right back in the pool for the 100 Yard Backstroke, event ten. Ivan entered as the 4th fastest time and improved that by a little more than a second to finish third in the prelims. He improved that time again on day two to capture second place and 17 points with a time of 51.56.
Harrison swam in his fourth and final race of the day, the 100 Yard Breaststroke. Entering as the fifteen seed, he knocked a second and a half off his time to finish the prelims in 10th place. In the consolation final, Harrison swam a time of 1:00.38 which was good for a 12th place overall finish.
The final event of the meet, the 400 Yard Free Relay team consisted of senior Daniel Penner, sophomore Joshua Warren, junior Ben Weinstein, and Noah Hyatt. The relay team finished with a prelim time of 3:53.47 to finish in 28th place on day one.
Overall, the team hovered around the top four all day before finishing in a tie for 5th place, just short of bringing home a trophy . It was a great season which saw a number of school records fall and a strong performance at the state meet. Congratulations to the team and coaches!
