Visitation wins seventh consecutive 1A swimming title, with a twist

Visitation, in winning its seventh consecutive Class 1A girls' state swimming and diving title on Saturday, still accomplished something it hadn't done since the 2016 state meet.

It won an individual event in the finals.

"On paper it looks good, but you never know until they do it," Visitation coach Nate Linscheid said.

The team of senior Kali Fischer, senior Elinor Glass, freshman Lucy Berg and senior Ava Hoffman won the first event Saturday, the 200 medley relay (1.45.64), to set the tone at Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota.

"Knowing that we don't normally win events that often, putting those points on the board, knowing that we won that event was just amazing," Fischer said.

Visitation led the entire day, relying on its depth to score points in every event except diving, for 318 points. It had three swimmers in the 200 individual medley and two in the 500 free. In all, 12 individuals swam in the finals.

"We were just, again, able to do it with numbers," Linscheid said. "We knew coming in that if we could just hold steady with where we were, it would end up well for us."

Hutchinson sophomore Grace Hanson won the 50 free for the third time. She tied the Class 1A record with a 22.79. She said it was her goal to get the state record and "really exciting to actually get on the same time."

"Obviously the 50's always close, so I just give it everything I've got," Hanson said. "Honestly, sometimes I close my eyes and I just go."

Hanson, who also won the 100 free (50.85), swam the first leg of the 400 free relay, an event Hutchinson won for the fourth straight year. She and teammates Madison Witte, Hailey Farrell and Lexi Kucera broke their own record from the preliminaries (3:27.06) set Friday with a 3:26.41 in the finals. Hutchinson also won the 200 free relay for the third year in a row.