Swimming and Diving: Wingers take fifth at Hudson Invite

In the Wingers’ first event of the year coach Jeff Simonson’s focus was already on the State Tournament.

He was pleased to see that three relay teams and three individuals posted times Saturday at the Hudson Invitational that were under the state qualifying time. Overall, the Wingers finished fifth out of eight teams.

Kyle Engen finished first in the 100 butterfly at 55.22 and second in the backstroke at 57.91.

“He is one of our go to guys,” Simonson said. “I can put him anywhere and he will do very well.”

Tanner Alms, an eighth grader, also had a state qualifying time of 5:11.16 in the 500 freestyle – good enough for fifth place on the day.

Red Wing’s medley relay (1:46.15) and 200 freestyle relay (1:35.83) teams both took third place in the invitational. The 400 freestyle relay team consisting of Alms, Andrew Berg, Connor O'Keefe and Engen finished in fourth place at 3:35.28.

Turner Eckstrom won the diving event with a score of 484, just shy of his personal best of 499.

“We were a short team that was short handed…the kids that were there swam pretty amazing for only two weeks of swimming under their belt,” Simonson said.

Tags: red wing, sports, wingers, swimming, diving