Detroit Lakes sophomore John Gulon finished the season swimming his best and locked up a 15th place mark in the 100-backstroke at the Class A swimming and diving championships held at Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center on campus at the University of Minnesota Saturday, Feb. 29.
Gulon set personal bests of 57.42 in the section preliminaries and 56.52 in the final to hit the state qualifying standard as one of four 5A qualifiers. He was seeded 17th at state.
Gulon opened with a personal best 56.35 in prelims to advance to the consolation final dropping 0.17 seconds off his top time in his state debut.
In Saturday’s final, Gulon swam 57.57 to place 15th overall and second among his four fellow section qualifiers.
Park Rapids Marcus Benson finished his Panther career with an impressive run to second place with a time of 51.01. He touched behind only state champion Charlie Crosby of Breck-Blake.
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Crosby cut the All-American standard time of 49.38 winning in 48.51.
Gulon was one place better than Sartell-St. Stephen senior Brannon Bjork in 16th place (59.76). Section 5A’s fourth qualifier, Alexandria junior Thomas Williams, placed 18th swimming a preliminary time of 56.75.
Breck-Blake captured the Class A team title scoring 342 points. St. Thomas Academy was second with 232, followed by Sartell-St. Stephen in third with 218. Alexandria put two Section 5A teams in the top five placing fifth with 167 points.
100 Yard Backstroke
(Place, Name, Year, School, Prelims, Finals)
1 Charlie Crosby 10 Breck-Blake 47.65 48.51
2 Marcus Benson 12 Park Rapids Area 51.56 51.01 17
3 Ryan Auran 12 St Thomas Academy 50.63 51.03 16
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4 Nick Black 10 Delano-Watertown-Mayer 52.93 53.39 15
5 Rafe Dolan Peterson 12 Austin 53.60 53.67 14
6 Logan Schroeder 10 Mesabi East, Aurora 53.72 54.01 13
7 Conner Hogan 8 Hutchinson 53.85 54.28 12
8 Liam Noble 11 Benilde-St Margaret's 54.44 54.49 11
Consolation Final
9 Ben Seelhammer 11 Willmar 54.51 55.08 9
10 Alexander Adams 12 St Thomas Academy 54.91 55.12 7
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11 Nam Truong 9 Breck-Blake 55.31 55.13 6
12 Addison Clarin 12 Chisago Lakes Area 55.68 55.34 5
13 Spencer Okoronkwo 10 Breck-Blake 55.72 56.17 4
14 Logan Gustufson 10 Mankato East 56.18 57.40 3
15 John Gulon 10 Detroit Lakes 56.35 57.57 2
16 Brannon Bjork 12 Sartell -st Stephen 56.54 59.76 1
Preliminaries
17 Jon Arends 12 Willmar 56.60
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18 Thomas Williams 11 Alexandria Area 56.75
19 Nico Losinski 10 Simley, Inver Grove Heights 56.80
20 Jeremiah Totall 10 Minneapolis Patrick Henry 57.88
21 Austin Morrissey 11 Grand Rapids 57.94
