Royals tankers place third at home invite

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To his very last length of his day in the pool, Greg Norsten swam with reckless abandon.

The junior served as the anchor for Woodbury’s 400 freestyle relay and made up some serious time in his split, helping the Royals finish third in the final race of Woodbury’s home invite on Saturday.

“Greg was saying he didn’t give up in that relay,” said Woodbury coach Marty Hoven. “He almost got us back in it there.”

Although Norsten’s heroics weren’t enough to help the Royals win the eight-team meet at Woodbury High School, they were enough to help his team edge out rival East Ridge for third place.

Apple Valley, who fielded strong swimmers and divers across the board, won the meet with 322 points. Orono came in second with 315. Woodbury scored 174, good for third place, and just ahead of the Raptors’ 172 points.

Individually, Norsten shined with wins in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. His 200 IM finish of 1:56.66 was only 2 seconds off his pool record recorded last year, Hoven said. And Norsten’s first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke came after he was not even the top seed. He ended up touching the wall almost 2 seconds before his closest competitor Apple Valley’s Nathan France.

“It was impressive to watch Greg race today,” Hoven said.

Also placing first for the Royals was Victor Lugg in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.87 seconds, 2 seconds better than second place finisher Mitch Miller of Orono.

Lugg also placed second in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.26 seconds.

“Victor is right on pace with where he wants to be,” Hoven said following the meet.

Other strong finishes for Woodbury came from senior Jordan Heir, who finished eighth out of 21 swimmers in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:04.41.

In the 500 freestyle seventh grader Garrett Norsten finished fifth in a field of 22 swimmers with a time of 5:35.3.

Freshman Eric Westfall placed sixth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:05.64.

The 200 free relay team of Greg Norsten, Andrew Peterson, Andrew Atwood and Lugg, necked out East Ridge by less than a second for third place with a time of 1:37.49.

The 400 free relay team of Greg Norsten, Heir, Lugg and Will Bobo finished third with a time of 3:34.90.

Hoven said the home invitational was a great early season test for his swimmers and divers as they prepare for a big stretch of the season in January and February.

“We’ve got two hard weeks of practices coming up, but this meet served as a very good benchmark for us,” Hoven said. “Apple Valley is an impressive team and Orono hung right with them. But we have a good, young team and we look to improve upon our performance today.”

Woodbury High School Invitational (Saturday, Dec. 18)

Final team standings:

Apple Valley – 322

Orono – 315

Woodbury – 174

East Ridge – 172

Richfield – 144

Tartan – 143

Park – 91

Stillwater – 34

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