St. Cloud's Micah Davis sets new state swim meet record in winning butterfly race
MINNEAPOLIS – Titles defended and record set – sophomore Micah Davis of the St. Cloud Tech/St. Cloud Cathedral/ROCORI/Becker combined team headlined the performance of area athletes at the 2024 state high school swimming meets.
The underclassman repeated as the Class 2A champion in the 200-yard freestyle and set the program and state meet record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 46.94, automatically qualifying for all-American status in both events. He was over a second faster than the previous best butterfly time of 48.11, set in 2021 by TCR swimmer Chris Morris before Becker joined the co-op. Morris now swims for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Davis will likely have steady competition in future butterfly state competitions, as he was the fastest of three sophomores to place first through third in the event. In the 200-yard freestyle, Davis swam a time of 1:36.74, just shy of the 2018 record of 1:35.39.
Thanks to Davis and his teammates’ scores, TCRB placed 19th in the Class 2A team standings, behind other central Minnesota schools Sauk Rapids-Rice (ninth) and Sartell-St. Stephen (13th).
St. Cloud Apollo sent swimmers to compete in the Class 1A state meet over the same days and the Eagles placed 11th as a team.
Aside from Davis, Sauk Rapids’ junior Cash Walz had the most individual success for St. Cloud-area natives, placing third in the Class 2A 200-yard medley and fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke. His medley time of 1:49.6 was fast enough to be considered for all-American status, as was a 56.09 in the breaststroke race.
Walz also swam the freestyle anchor leg for the Storm’s 200-yard medley relay team that placed eighth and was the first swimmer on the 400-yard freestyle relay team that took 14th. In the medley relay Walz swam after junior Garret Broman, junior Evan Scapanski and senior Hayden Zabinski and in the 400 free he preceded senior Alex Lucas, Broman and Zabinski.
TCRB’s 200-yard medley relay team was behind Sauk Rapids’ time of 1:36.62. The Tigers placed 16th with a time of 1:43.16. Junior Andy Offerdahl, senior Amado Sandoval, junior Ethan Noner and junior Garrett Lane compete on the relay team.
Sauk Rapids also competed against a local rival in the 400-freestyle, but the Storm weren't able to beat Sartell’s seventh-place time of 3:12.32. Competing in the relay for the Sabres were senior Jackson Hovda, sophomore Hayden Lenarz, junior Truett Carlson and senior George Larson.
The same four Sartell athletes placed eighth in the shorter 200-yard freestyle sprint with a time of 1:27.41.
Zabinski, Broman and Scapanski also competed in individual events for Sauk Rapids.
Zabinski was the only area athlete to qualify for state in diving and he made it on the podium in sixth place. His dives totaled 417.75, behind the winner from Rosemount’s score of 539.6.
Broman was eighth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.13 and Scapanski came in 16th in the 100-yard breaststroke finals with a time of 1:00.66.
For Sartell, Carlson and Hovda competed individually. Carlson placed 12th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:45.46 and 13th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:47.42 . Hovda was 14th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.23.
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Apollo had two athletes podium individually. Freshman Charlie Bobick finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:57.78 and Hunter Jokinen placed fifth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.07.
Senior Cade Jacobson was 15th in the 100-yard freestyle and Bobick also finished 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke
The Eagles’ 200-yard freestyle relay team took eighth and the same group of athletes was ninth in the 400-yard distance. Jokinen, Bobick, Jacobson and freshman Amittai Preisler competed on the teams for Apollo.
Several area athletes also competed at state in the preliminary rounds. Those athletes include Jokinen and Jacobson in the 50-meter freestyle, Larson in the 50-yard freestyle, Offerdahl in the 500-free and Lenarz in the 100-yard backstroke.
Contact reporter Reid Glenn at rglenn@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Central Minnesota high schoolers compete at 2024 state swim and dive
