Hutchinson girls swimmers saved their best for last. The Tigersharks won seven state titles, set two records and finished second as a team Saturday at the state final in Minneapolis.
Following the prelims Friday, Hutchinson knew it was too far behind Visitation to jump it in the standings. The Blazers went on to win their seventh straight state title with 318 points while the 'Sharks came in second with 250.
“They're a deep team,” head coach Rory Fairbanks said. “We knew it coming in. Prelims we did everything we could, they just swam better than I thought they would.
“We knew going in we had some of the best swimmers out there," Fairbanks added, "we just don't have enough of them to compete with Visitation."
Although the team fell short of a state title, it was one of the biggest days in a decade for the Tigersharks as they racked up medals in nine events and climbed to the top of podium seven times.
Leading the way with four state championships was sophomore Grace Hanson. She won titles in all four of her events and was an automatic All-American in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Her time of 22.79 in the 50 freestyle also tied a state record.
Along with those individual titles, Hanson led the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams to two more state championships. In the 200 she teamed up with Mikayla Witte, Ainslea Jensen and Lexi Kucera. In the 400 she was with Madison Witte, Hailey Farrell and Kucera. Both relays were automatic All-American finishes, and the 400 relay team set another new record, beating its own record from the prelims with a new time of 3:26.41.
Kucera was another big winner. Along with her titles in the two relays, the senior also won the butterfly and finished second in the 200 freestyle to wrap up her college career. Her time in the 200 freestyle earned her All-American consideration, and she missed by less than a second in the butterfly.
“It was amazing,” Kucera said about her final meet as Tigershark. “There's nothing more I can ask for.”
Farrell dominated her individual events, winning the 200 individual medley by more than two seconds and the 500 freestyle by six seconds for three state titles.
“I'm so grateful for all my teammates,” Farrell said. “We've done so much hard work. Yeah, it would have been nice to come out on top, but there's nothing that we could have done. I'm just so incredibly proud to have all of them all as my teammates.”
Farrell also helped the 200 medley relay team to a solid third-place finish along with teammates Mikayla Witte, Jaiden Mezera and Jensen.
“This was a great year,” Fairbanks said. “(We) set two state records, four automatic All-Americans, a lot of school records, we can't complain with that.”
While Visitation had the numbers in the end, Hutchinson had the best swimmers in state in more than half of the events, and they felt good with how the season wrapped up.
“We're very happy with what happened, and we all swam very well,” Kucera said. “There's nothing more we can ask for. We all did what we needed to do.”
Class A Swimming and Diving Championship (Nov. 16)
Hutch results
200 Medley Relay: 1. Visitation (Kali Fletcher, Elinor Glass, Lucy Berg, Ava Hoffman) 1:45.64; 3. Hutchinson (Mikayla Witte, Jaiden Mezera, Hailey Farrell, Ainsela Jensen) 1:48.23
200 Freestyle: 1. Taylor Williams (Benilde) 1:49.89; 2. Lexi Kucera (Hutch) 1:50.30; 16. Madison Witte (Hutch) 1:57.01; 23. Mikayla Witte (Hutch) 1:59.58
200 IM: 1. Hailey Farrell (Hutch) 2:04.10; 15. Mezera 2:13.24
50 Freestyle: 1. Grace Hanson (Hutch) 22.79
100 Butterfly: 1. Lexi Kucera (Hutch) 55.57; 13. Madison Witte 59.25
100 Freestyle: 1. Grace Hanson (Hutch) 49.83
500 Freestyle: 1. Hailey Farrell (Hutch) 4:59.54; 12. Kasidy Brecht 5:14.27
200 Freestyle Relay: 1. Hutchinson (Hanson, Mikayla Witte, Jensen, Kucera) 1:35.15
100 Backstroke: 1. Emma Kern (Delano) 54.94; 10. Brecht 59.48; 15. Mikayla Witte 1:00.29
400 Freestyle: 1. Hutchinson (Hanson, Madison Witte, Farrell, Kucera) 3:26.41
