The 2023-2024 season for the Benilde-St. Margaret’s Boys’ Swim team has been one for the record books. The team excelled at sections and qualified for a trip to the State Tournament, where they had some strong performances.
Ryan Miksch has been the Boys’ Swim coach for five seasons, and after an impressive performance at sections, he had high hopes for the team’s state appearance. “We had some really great swims [in sections] from the whole team. Everyone celebrated their teammates’ success as much as their own, which created a very motivating and encouraging team environment,” Miksch said.
Preparation for the State Tournament began as soon as sections came to an end on February 23rd. The team worked hard for several days but also made sure to leave time for resting before the State Tournament, which took place on February 29th. “BSM will be represented in every swimming event at state this year, which has never been done before in BSM history. We have a few swimmers who weren’t fully rested for sections, so it’ll be exciting to see what they can do. It’s going to be a great meet for BSM,” Miksch said.
The BSM Boys’ Swim team finished in 7th place out of the 15 teams that competed in the Minnesota Class A State Tournament. While the entire team excelled, senior captain Lucas Haenel had some very notable performances. He placed in the top 10 in the 100-meter backstroke event and broke his previous school record in the 200-meter individual medley event. As the team’s main backstroker, Haenel also contributed to the 7th-place finish in the 200-meter medley relay event that broke another school record. “I was a little nervous before State, but in the end, the nerves paid off and we swam fast,” Haenel said.
To make the team’s section performance even more impressive, four school records were broken during the section finals. Haenel broke the school record in the 200-meter individual medley event. Junior Joey Sandhoefner broke the school records in both the 100-meter butterfly event and the 100-meter breaststroke event. Haenel and Sandhoefner also broke the school record in the 200-meter medley relay along with juniors Will Gadtke and Lucas Wurst. “It felt really good [to break a school record]. It’ll be fun to see our names up on the wall [in the Haben],” Haenel said.