High School Swimming History: Winning the State Meet with Four Swimmers

Winning a high school state meet is tough.  Winning it with only four swimmers is near impossible…. but in 1990, it happened.  Now before we get into the details, there’s a few things that were a bit different in Minnesota High School swimming at the time.

First, there was no Class A and Class AA.  Though the top teams in the state were in the Twin Cities area, there were plenty of top notch swimmers from out state and smaller schools.  This made it a little more crowded, so to speak, at the top and teams getting two swimmers to score in a single event was uncommon.

Second, this was the last year the state meet was held in the Cooke Hall pool.  Cooke Hall was where the   University of Minnesota teams swam before there was a Jean K Freeman Aquatic center.  It was an old pool, built in 1934.  There was no deck space around the competition pool and spectator seating went around three sides of the pool in a steep vertical incline due to the small footprint.  It felt more like a gladiator colosseum than a pool.  More importantly, it was six lanes, which means point scoring only went up to 12 places.  This made it even more difficult for teams to get more than a single point scorer in an event.

Third, the 200 Free Relay wasn’t an event in high school swimming yet.  It wasn’t until the following year it was swam in high school meets.  It would be incredibly hard to win a state meet with only enough to cover one really and leave two open.

During the season, it was clear there were four top tier teams in the state.  Apple Valley was the reigning state champions and had not graduated much.  Minnetonka had won state two years before and had talent but were a young team.  Edina, as always back then had a stable of quality swimmers, especially in the fly.  Rosemount was the fourth team and had a core of versatile and talented swimmers.  Based on section results, it looked like Minnetonka would be the slight favorite with two strong relays, a diver, and 6 individual swims.  Apple Valley was close behind with an elite 400 Free Relay, a back six Medley and 8 individual swims, including returning state champion in the 200 and 500 Free, Jason Hansen.  Edina also had two strong relays and a diver, but only 5 individual swims.  Rosemount did not have a Medley Relay, but had 6 individual swims, a diver, and the top ranked 400 Free Relay

Everything changed one heat into the prelims session.  Minnetonka dropped three seconds from their 14th place seed time and had the second fastest prelim swim…. but…were DQd for a false start.  For the rest of prelims, Rosemount held their seeds, Apple Valley had some swimmers slide down into the back 6, and Edina pretty much held their spots.  The rest of the Minnetonka swimmers held their own with the diver just missing the top 12 and finishing 14th.

After the prelims session, Minnetonka was down to 6 individual swims and a relay.  Edina had all their swims, a point scoring diver and two relays, Apple Valley had all their swims and two relays, Rosemount had all of their swims and one relay.  A quick scoring of the finals program showed Apple Valley winning state, Rosemount second, and Minnetonka and Edina tied for third…but…they don’t hand out trophies for psych sheet scoring.

The finals were an emotional roller coaster for all the teams.  Edina moved up to the top three in the medley, while Apple Valley dropped from 7th to 10th.  The 200 Free was a battle with Apple Valley placing 1st and 6th and Minnetonka 4th and 5th.  In the IM, Rosemount’s Tim Sjobeck took 1st, putting Rosemount on the board.  Rosemount put up more points the 50 Free with a 2nd place finish, Minnetonka with a 4th place, and Edina a 6th.

After the diving break, Edina added to their total with a 5th and 6th place finish in the fly and Rosemount a 4th.  The 100 Free had more points for Rosemount with senior Eric Haseman placing second.  Minnetonka’s Brad Grabham was 9th after prelims but threw down a 2 second time drop to place 7th and had a time that would place 2nd overall if he were allowed to move into the top 6…but…he wasn’t.  The 500 was one of the most epic battles of the meet with reigning state champion Jasen Hasen and Minnetonka freshman Jeff Dragsten going at.  Dragsten lead for 450+ yards of the race, but not on the one’s that count.  Hansen took first for Apple Valley and Dragsten second.

The backstroke gave Minnetonka some more points with a 3rd place finish and Apple Valley slid a little with their backstroker who was seeded 7th, finished 8th.  A look at the score at this point had Apple Valley likely to win.  They had a breaststroker seeded 10th and an elite free relay.  Edina had a breaststroker seeded 7th, but they had fallen behind the pace a little.  Minnetonka and Rosemount just had their 400 Free Relays left.

Now, if you’ve ever been to Cooke Hall, you know there is no way for teams to sit around the competition pool during the meet.  When you weren’t swimming, you went through a little hallway to the cool down pool and all the teams sat around that one in between events.  The place was abuzz when word made it back there that the Apple Valley breaststroker false started.  Everyone knew the math and what it meant.  It meant four teams had a chance to win the state meet in the last relay.  Minnetonka was seeded first in the relay after prelims, Rosemount second, just two tenths behind.  Apple Valley third, less than five tenths behind Rosemount and Edina fourth, just behind Apple Valley.

Cooke Hall is a loud place.  I can’t even begin to describe how loud it was for that relay.  It was electric.  Apple Valley had the lead after the first leg, Rosemount after the second, Minnetonka after the third.  The last leg was a battle between Rosemount and Minnetonka.  Rosemount shot to the lead for 75 yards until Brad Grabham, came off the last wall to pass for the lead under the flags.  Minnetonka won by 0.36 seconds.

Final team scores:  Minnetonka 96, Apple Valley 92, Edina, and Rosemount – 88.  Minnetonka had four swimmers score in that meet.  Freshman Jeff Dragsten 5th 200 Free, 2nd 500 Free, Sophomore Scott Gagner 4th 50 Free, Junior Brad Grabham, 4th 200 Free, 7th 100 Free, and Senior Mark Seguin, 3rd 100 Back.  The four of them combined for the 400 Free Relay 1st and a state championship.

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