The Park Rapids junior places 15th in the 200-yard individual medley.

MINNEAPOLIS – Carter Schiller’s goal entering his first state Class A boys swimming meet was to improve on his time from the Section 5A meet and advance to the finals.

Although the Park Rapids junior just missed cutting time, he was able to qualify for the consolation finals in the 200-yard individual medley at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

Schiller, who advanced to state with a third-place time of 2:05.04 at the section meet, made his state debut by placing 15th out of 26 swimmers with a time of 2:05.05 during preliminaries on Friday, March 7. Schiller stayed in that position in the consolation finals with a 2:05.25 for 15th place to score 2 points as Park Rapids placed 20th place in the team standings on Saturday, March 8.“He did awesome,” said Park Rapids head coach Todd Fritze. “He raced really well.”

During the section meet, Schiller had splits of 26.29 in the butterfly, 30.95 in the backstroke, 37.09 in the breaststroke and 30.71 in the freestyle for a 2:05.04 to move into the No. 3 spot on the Panthers’ all-time list behind Marcus Benson (1:56.63) and Isaac Zinniel (2:04.99). Alexandria’s Andy Wacek (2:00.11) and Fergus Falls’ Jaden Kwapinski (2:03.53) finished ahead of Schiller, who entered state seeded No. 19.

During the state preliminaries, Schiller went 26.19 in the butterfly, 31.11 in the backstroke, 37.34 in the breaststroke and 30.41 in the freestyle for a 2:05.05 for 15th place. St. Cloud Apollo’s Charlie Bobick led the field in 1:52.53 while Monticello’s Ethan Bad Heart claimed the final spot in the consolation finals by placing 16th in 2:05.48. Wacek was seventh in 1:59.53 while Kwapinski just missed advancing by placing 17th in 2:05.49.

“I thought if he could hold (his section time) or get a little faster, he’d have a good shot at it (advancing to the second day),” said Park Rapids head coach Todd Fritze. “I felt pretty good he’d be in the mix.”

In the finals, Schiller started slower with splits of 26.66 in the butterfly and 32.23 in the backstroke before finishing strong with splits of 36.50 in the breaststroke and 29.86 in the freestyle for a 2:05.25. Bobick won the state title in 1:51.91 and Wacek placed seventh in 1:59.65. Benilde-St. Margaret’s Joshua Peters won the consolation title in 2:00.24.

“Carter was not as fast on the front side, but he went faster on the back side,” said Fritze. “The goal was to swim the second day and score down there. It was a good finish to the season for him.”

St. Thomas Academy won the state title with 86 points while Alexandria was seventh with 43 points, Melrose/Sauk Centre was ninth with 31 points and Fergus Falls finished 18th with 4 points among Section 5A teams.