2022 Minnesota High School Boys’ Swimming & Diving State Championship Meet – Class AA
- March 3-5, 2022
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
- Prelims Swimming Results (PDF)
- Full Finals Results (PDF)
The Edina boys won four events, all in All-America fashion, en route to a fourth-straight Minnesota High School State Championship. That gives the program 14 all-time state titles dating back to their first in 1965. That ties them with Hibbing High School (which won its most recent title in 1952) as the 2nd-most titles across all classes in Minnesota history.
Winningest Boys Swimming & Diving Programs in Minnesota High School History:
- 15 – St. Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, 1995-2016
- 14 – Edina, 1965-2022
- 14 – Hibbing, 1934-1952
- 11 – Minnetonka, 1978-2018
- 10 – Rochester, 1954-1964
The run to glory for Edina included a sweep of the meet’s relay events.
They opened the meet with a 1:31.91 in the 200 medley relay, winning by more than a second-and-a-half. The team of Patrick Horton (23.64), Rohan D’Souza Larson (25.33), Kai Taft (22.57), and Michael Thurk (20.37) combined for a winning time of 1:31.91. Thurk had the fastest closing 50 split of the field.
Other notable splits in that relay included a 22.62 fly leg from Eden Prairie freshman Drew Ploof and a 22.78 backstroke leg from junior Luke Logue as part of their 3rd-place effort. While Edina graduates three of its four medley relay legs, the runners-up from Minnetonka (1:33.50) graduate only one, and third-place Eden Prairie doesn’t graduate anyone.
Logue backed up his best-in-field backstroke split with a 48.09 to win the individual event later in the meet by over a second-and-a-half. His time clears the All-America Automatic qualifying time. Logue’s previous personal best was a 48.80 at Winter Juniors – West that finished 19th.
Taft, the butterflier on the winning Edina relay, also picked up Edina’s lone individual win of the meet, topping the 200 IM in 1:48.85. He was half-a-second behind Logue going into the breaststroke leg, but made up a full second on the breaststroke leg to build a lead that would hold up on freestyle. Logue was 2nd in 1:49.87.
That swim was Taft’s first state title; last season, he placed 2nd in this race.
While he swam the fly leg on the medley relay, Taft’s 2nd event was the 100 breast, where he touched in 2nd place in 56.80. That put him behind only Minnetonka’s Carson Witte (54.31). Witte, who split 24.41 on Minnetonka’s runner-up medley relay, is committed to SMU: a program that has an NCAA qualifier this season in the breaststrokes.
His previous best time was 55.12 at Winter Juniors West in December, and this time was a 1.7 second improvement over his third-place finish from last season.
Edina won again in the 200 free relay in 1:23.76. This time the group was Nico Leibert (21.58), Larson (20.90), Taft (20.75), and senior Max Dow on the anchor (20.53) with the fastest split of the field.
Minnetonka’s relay, including a 20.63 split from Witte, was 2nd in 1:24.60, which is also under the All-America Auto standard.
Edina closed off the relay sweep with a dominant 3:03.87 in the 400 free relay to close the meet. That relay included Thurk (46.11), Matthew Walker (46.40), Patrick Horton (45.87), and Dow (45.49).
Eden Prairie was again 2nd in 3:06.33; Logue anchored their relay 45.34, which was the fastest split of the field.
Aside from Edina, the big winner on the day was Grant Wodny from Duluth High School. One of just two individual scorers from his school, Wodny picked up victories in both the 200 free (1:38.73) and 500 free (4:29.19).
In total, Wodny dropped almost two seconds off his best time in the 200 throughout the 2022 high school championship season (1:0.63 from last year’s meet) and almost five off his best time in the 500 (4:33.76).
Wodny, who will remain in state at the University of Minnesota beginning fall 2023, appears to be the first Minnesota individual boys state swimming champion from a Duluth Program since Denfeld’s Ronald Onsgard won the 50 free in 1962.
Other Class AA Champions:
- Rosemount freshman Lucas Gerten won the 1-meter diving event with a score of 419.40. He is second-ever diver to win a state champion after Daniel Monaghan won in 2013 and 2014 – Monaghan was the school’s last state champion in any event.
- Eagan high school senior Jackson Kehler won the 100 fly in 49.11, just beating-out Eden Prairie’s Yash Salunke and Minnetonka’s Carson Witte. Kehler sat out last year’s state meet, but was the AA champion in the 200 free and 500 free in 2020 as a sophomore. He is committed to swim at Utah in the fall.
- Lakesville South’s Max Kasal won the 100 free in 45.38, finishing half-a-second ahead of Anoka’s Nathan Anderson (45.88). That’s a huge leap for Kasal, who finished just 14th at last year’s state meet in 47.52 (which at the time was a personal best by a second-and-a-half. The late-blooming senior is committed to swim for Green Bay next season. He’s just the school’s third state champion all-time in boys swimming and diving.
- The final order of the men’s 50 free was reversed, with Anoka’s Anderson winning in 20.97 and Kasal finishing 2nd in 21.01. Edina (Michael Thurk, 3rd/Rohan D’Souza Larson, 6th) and Brainerd (Cade Rosenwald, 4th/Thomas Ruhl, 7th) each put two swimmers in that A final.
Final Team Standings – Top 10
- Edina – 355
- Eden Prairie – 200
- Minnetonka – 170
- Lakeville South – 151
- Wayzata – 120
- Brainerd – 118
- Chanhassen-Chaska – 107
- Woodbury – East Ridge – 85
- Spring Lake Park – 77
- Eagan – 71
Congrats to Edina! Such a great group of young men who have all been swimming together for years. On top of being class acts, they are all incredibly bright and talented. (Worth noting that the team put out six Academic All-Americans this year, as well.)
Congratulations to Grant Wodny from Duluth for his wins in the 200/500 free! As a former competitor from Duluth East girls team (back in the prehistoric times) I knew it was always an uphill battle to score any points at the state meet but this makes my heart feel glad. Best wishes for your career swimming for the Golden Gophers
Grant is the most humble winner you will ever meet, dserved every win at state. The Duluth program has been on the rise in the last 5 years with a great head coach, this proves it is a contender. Great to see it under the spotlight! Congrats Grant!
Scott, no need to try and coach as long as Art 😉
In all seriousness, pretty weird to see the MN small schools post faster times, in multiple events, than the big schools.
Breck/breck is two schools. Break them up and Edina wins.
Edina high school is almost 3k students. Breck/Blake combined is less than that. I get your point, but it’s a terrible comparison.
I was thinking of team rosters, not actual schools. Also worth mentioning that many swimmers from both Breck/Blake and Edina actually train at the same club, primarily aquajets.
One public high school (EHS) vs 2 very selective & expensive prep schools (Breck & Blake). You’re right FormerBig10, YOUR original comparison is terrible to begin with. As you are probably aware, these athletes all swim for the same clubs. Level of the top athletes has little to do with the size of the schools. Depth, well, there maybe the larger schools have some advantage.
Congrats to all the athletes and schools!
Congrats to all athletes and great swims! It should be noted that kids in public schools are from the same community while private schools have kids from all over the state, and higher sports participation rate than public schools. So size doesn’t matter much.
It is interesting that Breck/Blake Swim and Dive is combined for boys but not for girls? Goes against the argument for school size. Why split the girls and not the boys?