Saint Thomas Academy Swimmers Soar in Section Meet

Defending section champion St. Thomas Academy showed off its great team depth in the first round of the 2011 Section 1AA boys swimming and diving meet Thursday evening by advancing 20 individuals and all three relay teams to the section finals.

The swimmers competed at Veterans Memorial Community Center in Inver Grove Heights for the chance to move forward.

St. Thomas Academy had four individual firsts and a relay win Thursday in the prelims, and qualified by far the most swimmers for the top eight finals.

Junior Luke Johanns of the Academy won the 100-yard backstroke in 55.28.

Junior Sam Johnson of St. Thomas Academy finished first in the 200 yard IM in 2:06.25. Sam Nields was third in 2:07.53.

Nield was first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.88, Paul Brunkhorst third in 1:03.71 and Johnson fifth in 1:05.78.

The team of Michael Berg, Nields, Danny Schaefer and Luke Schneeman won the leadoff 200-yard medley relay in a season’s best time of 1:42.33.

STA went 3-4-6 in the 200-yard freestyle. Berg was second in 1:52.50, Jeremy Conners fourth in 1:53.66 and Matthew Schreier sixth in 1:53.99.

The Cadets had three of the top five finishers in the 50 yard sprint. Johanns won in a speedy 21.95, Tim Anderson was fourth in 22.97 and Schneeman fifth in 23.11.

In the 100-yard butterfly, Schaefer was fifth and Paul Brunkhorst sixth in 57.22.

Three STA swimmers qualified for the finals in the 100-yard freestyle. Schneeman was fourth in 51.40, Michael Connors sixth in 51.59 and Alex Curran eighth in 51.79.

Berg was second in the 500 freestyle relay in 5:00.49, Schreier was fourth in 5:09.69 and Conners fifth in 5:10.26.

St. Thomas Academy’s 200-yard style relay team of Curran, Anderson, Schneeman and Schaefer was second in 1:33.17.

Curran, Berg, Schaefer and Schreier were second in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:27.21.

Finals for swimming and diving are Saturday starting at 1 p.m.