Visitation wins its ninth girls swimming state title in a row

It's a pretty rare feat to have four swimmers from the same program in the final heat of a state championship race. Sweeping the top four spots makes it even more impressive. That's how the 500-yard freestyle event played out for Visitation on Friday.

"We set that goal after last year's state meet to be able to go 1, 2, 3, 4," Visitation senior Ella Passe said. "We came into the meet thinking, 'Oh, I'm not sure if that's possible.' "

Indeed, it was. The 1, 2, 3, 4 effort was part of another dominating Class 1A girls' swimming and diving state meet for Visitation, which won its ninth consecutive team championship at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota.

The Blazers entered the 500 freestyle with the same four swimmers from a year ago. Passe won the event in 5:00.44 this year ahead of teammates senior Elizabeth Burke, junior Tessa Lindstrom and sophomore Maggie Farley in lanes 4-7. The results were nearly identical to last year, except Farley took fifth. Passe, who will swim at Duke next year, called the result this year "one of the most special moments I've ever had as a swimmer."

As a team, the Blazers never trailed after the second event on their way to 397 points; Delano was second at 194.5 points and Mound Westonka-Holy Family third at 168. Visitation, after qualifying 17 individuals for the finals, won three individual swims and two of the three relays. Eleven different swimmers scored points Friday for the Blazers.

"We couldn't do it without every single person who's here, regardless if they scored," said senior Anna Farley, who is committed to swim at Villanova.

The Blazers have won nine consecutive state titles since 2013 and 13 total championships in 17 state meets, all since 2005. It's the most dominating stretch in girls swimming since Virginia won 12 straight team titles from 1930-41.

The depth of Visitation runs deep, both at this state meet and for the future.

"We're fortunate to have fast swimmers come to our school," Visitation coach Nate Linscheid said. "I think a lot of it is, once you have a critical mass of people who believe in what we do, and everybody comes in new just buys into that."

Junior Carly Bixby won two individual titles, taking first in the 100 butterfly (54.53) and 100 backstroke (54.81). The Auburn commit also swam on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams for Blake.

She was last year's 200 freestyle champion and also swam the 100 freestyle.

"Usually, I swim 100, 200 free," Bixby said. "So I decided to switch it up this year. I didn't really know what to expect. But I was really happy with it."

"The last 25 [yards] in the 100, I said, 'OK, I got this,' when I was off my last wall," Biegler said. "And then the 50 was a pretty strong race of mine."

She also swam the third leg of the 200 medley relay, which took eighth place.

Melrose junior Hallie Drossel successfully defended her 100 breaststroke title in a close race. She touched the wall in 1:03.73, three one-hundredths of a second ahead of Dueck (1:03.76).

"My strong suit is the second 50," Drossel said. "So coming into that second 50, I said … 'Here's where we've really got to push it.' "

Drossel also took fifth in the 200 individual medley and swam in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.