Simley High Swimmers Set to Make State Splash

Simley High School's contingent at the state swimming and diving meet this year will be small in numbers, but mighty in ability.

The Spartans finished as the runner-up in the Class A team tournament last season, but likely don’t have enough qualifiers to make a run at this year’s title. Simley will send just four swimmers and junior diver Carter Lange to this year’s state meet, which runs Thursday through Saturday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

“We have a lot of top guns, we just don’t have the depth,” said Simley senior Alex Jurrens. “But we also have a very young team as well.”

Simley qualified both its 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays teams, plus senior swimmer Nate Briguet in the 50 and 100 freestyles, sophomore Alec Kandt in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke and Jurrens in the 50 freestyle.

“We’re going to try and be top 10 again,” said head coach Lynn Newton. “Hopefully further up than just top 10, but top 10 would be very nice, especially after all our seniors have graduated.”

All of the Simley swimmers and divers and relay teams go into the state meet with times and marks capable of reaching the top eight finals.

“I think all of them can be top eight in all that they do,” said Newton. “We only have six individual swims and dives and two relays, but when all of those can be top eight, you can still score pretty good.”

Several of the Simley swimmers have experience standing on the state meet place-winners podium. Kandt was fourth in the breaststroke and seventh in the 200 yard individual medley in last year’s state meet. Briguet was ninth in the 200 freestyle and 11th in the 100 freestyle. Both Kandt and Briguet swam on the Simley's successful 200 freestyle relay team, which won the 200-yard freestyle relay, and the 400 freestyle relay team, which finished third in last year’s state meet.

Kandt has top three times in both of his individual events. In the 100 breaststroke, he has the second-fastest qualifying time with a 1:00.73. In the butterfly, Kandt’s time of 54.17 is the third-fastest qualifying mark.

Jurrens goes in with the fourth-fastest qualifying time in the 50 freestyle with a 22.06.

Jurrens’ aims this weekend, he said, are “pretty much the same as most swimmers out there: Just to reach your goals that you set for yourself and what you train for all season."

Briguet has the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the 100 freestyle (49.72) and the 11th-fastest time in the 50 freestyle.

“I’m just hoping to go my goal times, for what I set this season,” said Briguet.

Simley’s 400 freestyle relay team of Briguet, Jurrens, sophomore Tim Luhr and Kandt have the third-fastest qualifying time with a 3:19.84. The 200 freestyle team, which will swim in the order of Jurrens, Kandt, Luhr and Briguet, comes into the state meet with the fifth-fastest qualifying time (1:30.41).

“It’s not hard to get pumped for the relays, I usually go my best times in the relays anyways,” said Briguet.

“It’s a lot easier to go faster when you know you have somebody right behind you and one of your own teammates to back you,” agreed Jurrens.

All of the Simley swimmers think their relay teams have a good shot at placing highly.

“I believe everyone in our relay can drop times,” said Luhr. “I think we’ve got a good shot.”

“We haven’t talked about major goals,’ said Kandt. “But our goal is just to do what we can do as a team, see how fast this relay team can actually go, see how it can compare to other years."

Both Briguet and Kandt were midway through their tapers for the section meet, which mean both should be able to shave some seconds off their top times for state.

Lange is a threat to score well in the Class A one-meter diving competition.

“He’s extremely talented and very graceful on the board and he’s fun to watch,” said coach Newton. “He hasn’t even tapped his potential of what he can do. He’s just starting to see a little tip of the iceberg on that one.”   

The Class A diving preliminaries, the first five of eight dives for the state meet, will begin at noon Thursday, followed by the Class AA diving preliminaries at 6 p.m.

The Class A swimming preliminaries begin at noon Friday, followed by the Class AA swimming preliminaries at 6 p.m.

Class A championship finals of all events begin at noon Saturday, followed by the Class AA finals at 6 p.m.

Tickets will be available at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Prices are $5 for both students and adults for the diving preliminaries, and $8 for students and adults for the swimming preliminaries and for the swimming and diving finals.