Willmar's Ava Brogren does the backstroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley Saturday in the Section 3A championships at Willmar. Photo courtesy of Sarah Jagow.

By Tom Elliott

November 13, 2021 11:08 PM

WILLMAR — When Willmar head coach Carl Shuldes said Section 3A was going to be tough, he wasn’t kidding.

Every race had more than the minimum two state meet qualifiers Saturday at the Willmar High School pool.

The extremely fast times and high point totals in diving meant that you could finish as low as seventh in some races and still earn a berth in the state Class A meet.

For Willmar, that meant Ava Brogren qualified in two individual events and as a part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team. Diver Kylie Portlin also qualified, enabling the Cardinals to have five athletes head to the state meet that begins Thursday and concludes Saturday at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

Brogren, a senior, qualified in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. She had a time of 2 minutes, 14.35 seconds in the 200 IM, good for fourth. In the 100 breaststroke, she had a time of 1:08.81 that was good for fifth place in a race that qualified seven for state.

“Ava swam two great races to get in in her events,” Shuldes said. “The 200 IM was just a solid race. In the 100 breaststroke, her start was not great but she fought her way back.”

Willmar sophomore Kylie Portlin qualified for state in 1-meter diving on Saturday at Willmar. Photo courtesy of Sarah Jagow

In diving, Portlin had a score of 302.95 to meet the qualifying standard and finish fourth overall.

“Kylie was a very nice surprise finishing fourth in diving,” Shuldes said.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Borgren, Aubrey Schueler, Ana Hernandez and Shelby Reed also qualified for state with a time of 1:41.37. They took sixth in the meet.

“Aubrey Schueler swam a very strong leg after Ava led off to put us in excellent position, followed by Ana with Shelby as the anchor,” Shuldes said.

The Willmar 200-yard freestyle relay team celebrates when it learns it is advancing to the state meet Saturday at Willmar. Pictured are (from left) Ana Hernandez, Ava Brogren, Aubrey Sucheler and Shelby Reed. Photo courtesy of Sarah Jagow

Orono captured the team championship with 407 points, edging Delano, which had 398. Willmar took sixth with 158 points. Litchfield was eighth with 95 points and Montevideo finished 10th with 47.

Preliminaries took place Thursday, with the top eight qualifying for the championship finals and the second eight qualifying for the consolation finals.

Section 3A

TEAM SCORES – (1) Orono 407 … (2) Delano 398 … (3) Hutchinson 363 … (4) Waconia 280.5 … (5) Mound-Westonka/Holy Family 261.5 … (6) Willmar 158 … (7) Marshall 99 … (8) Litchfield 95 … (9) Dassel-Cokato 90 … (10) Montevideo 47 … (11) Watertown-Mayer 36

State qualifiers and top 8 Litchfield and Willmar finishes:

200 MEDLEY RELAY – (1) Hutchinson 1:46.40 … (2) Delano 1:47.13 … (3) Mound-Westonka/Holy Family 1:50.4 … (4) Orono 1:51.12 … (5) Waconia 1:51.77 …. (8) Litchfield (Margaret Boerema, Emily Petersen, Alex Carlson, Cora Huhn) 2:00.77.

200 FREESTYLE – (1) Graycin Andreen, O, 1:54.97 ... (2) Jerica Warrington, Wac, 1:55.58 … (3) Madison L. Witte, Hutch, 1:57.90

200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – (1) Hailey Farrell, Hutch, 2:08.24 … (2) Addie Thalhuber, O, 2:13.60 … (3) Madilyn Gehrke, Hutch, 2:14.05 … (4) Ava Brogren, W, 2:14.35 … (5) Claire Canfield, Wac, 2:14.52 … (6) Jaiden Mzera, Hutch, 2:15.15.

50 FREESTYLE – (1) Grace K. Hanson, Hutch, 23.45 … (2t) Julia Bartell, Wac, 24.47 … (2t) Jaylyn Storm, MW, 24.47 … (4) Kaia Georges, D, 24.67 … (6) Shelby Reed, W, 25.24.

DIVING – (1) Avery Lommel, D, 433.20 ... (2) MaKena Rasmussen, O, 367.35 … (3) Sophia Capece, O, 338.95 … (4) Kylie Portlin, W, 302.95.

100 BUTTERFLY – (1) Emma Kern, D, 55.27* … (2) Madison L. Witte, Hutch, 58.33 … (3) Abigail Voelker, Wac, 59.42 … (4) Annie Springer, MW, 59.87 … (5) Abby Seguin, D, 59.96.

100 FREESTYLE – (1) Hanson, Hutch, 51.59 … (2) Kasidy Brecht, Hutch, 53.02 … (3) Julia Bartell, Wac, 53.61 ... (4) Georges, D, 53.99 … (5) Storm, MW, 54.26.

500 FREESTYLE – (1) Graycin Andreen, O, 5:11.02 ... (2) Farrell, Hutch, 5:12.22 … (3) Thalhuber, O, 5:22.00 … (4) Ellen Ries, MW, 5:24.44 … (5) Shelby Benker, D, 5:25.52

200 FREESTYLE RELAY – (1) Hutchinson 1:38.43 .. (2) Delano 1:38.99 … (3) Orono 1:40.23 … (4) Mound-Westonka/Holy Family 1:40.77 … (5) Waconia 1:40.84 … (6) Willmar (Brogren, Aubrey Schueler, Ana Hernandez, Reed) 1:41.37 … (7) Litchfield (Boerema, Adeline Lundin, Holly Lagergren, Ellie Brown) 1:43.80.

100 BACKSTROKE – (1) Kern, D, 54.74 … (2) Warrington, Wac, 57.77 … (3) Brecht, Hutch, 57.96 … (4) Norah Seguin, D, 59.48

100 BREASTSTROKE – (1) Madilyn Gehrke, Hutch, 1:05.58 ... (2) Kate Johnston, MW, 1:06.51 … (3) Annemarie Johnson, MW, 1:08.36 … (4) Thalhuber, O, 1:08.80 … (5) Brogren, W, 1:08.81 … (6) Izabelle Schwartz, Hutch, 1:09.27 … (7) Abby Wadholm, D, 1:03.97.

400 FREESTYLE RELAY – (1) Hutchinson 3:32.76 … (2) Delano 3:34.98 … (3) Waconia 3:39.58 … (4) Orono 3;40.93 … (5) Mound-Westonka/Holy Family 3:42.47 … (6) Willmar (Reed, Schueler, Cate Brogren, A. Brogren) 3:48.85 …. 97) Litchfield (Lagergren, Adallia Bruning, Lundin, Brown) 3:54.78.

*-denotes a meet record.

Girls swimming and diving: Willmar sends five to the state meet

Ava Brogren leads the way as the Cardinals finish sixth in the highly competitive Section 3A championships Saturday. Also heading to state: diver Kyle Portlin and Ana Hernandez, Aubrey Schueler and Shelby Reed.