Woodbury boys swimming and diving: Royals fall short to Ponies, rebound to win own invite

The Woodbury boys swimming and diving team made an early splash last week.

The Royals gave perennial Suburban East Conference powerhouse Stillwater a run for its money on Thursday, Dec. 15, in the team’s first SEC meet, before finishing in first place in its own Woodbury Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Stillwater beat Woodbury 93-85 in the teams’ head-to-head meeting. However, the Ponies mathematically won the meet with three events remaining and weren’t scored in those last three.

Despite the loss, the Royals proved too much for Stillwater in a number of events. Woodbury placed first in four of the meet’s 13 events, earned three second-place finishes and four third-place finishes.

Most notably, Woodbury senior Gregory Norsten took first place in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly.

Norsten’s time of 1 minute, 43.59 seconds in the 200 free not only won the event by more than 13 seconds, it also set new Woodbury High School, pool and Suburban East Conference records. Norsten also had a time of 52.40 seconds in the 100 fly, winning the event in over three seconds.

Woodbury senior Victor Lugg dominated the sprints – winning both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.

Norsten and Lugg also joined forces to help the Royals’ 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay teams finish in second place. Other team members on the relays were Nate Henning and Will Bobo on the 200-yard free relay and Henning and Brady Bennett were also on the 400-yard free relay.

Also earning a second place finish for Woodbury was sophomore Eric Westfall with his time of 1:01.58 in the 100-yard backstroke. Additionally, Woodbury’s 200-yard medley relay team of Westfall, Garrett Norsten, David Khazanovich and Bobo took third place as did Garrett Norsten in the 100-yard breaststroke and eighth-grader William Tostensen in the 500-yard freestyle. Also, Woodbury senior Nathan Jensen finished in third place in the diving competition with a score of 154.55 points.

After the match with Stillwater, Woodbury won five events to win its own seven-team invitational. The Royals totaled 489.5 points in the meet, edging second-place Orono, which scored 434 points.

“I am really proud of the team for swimming so well and winning our Woodbury Invite,” Woodbury coach Marty Hoven said. “It is a nice confidence builder.”

Greg Norsten won the 200-yard individual medley in 1:59.73 and touched the wall first in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:02.92, Lugg won the 50 free in 22.62 and the 100 free in 49.41, the 400-yard free relay team of Lugg, Bennett, Henning and Norsten was first in the event in 3:31.28, Jensen placed second in 1-meter diving with 232.10 points and Norsten, Henning, Bobo and Lugg helped the 200 free relay team take second in 1:33.04.

Next up for Woodbury will be a head-to-head meet with Park, which finished in third place at the Woodbury invite with 351.5 points.

“Park had a number of impressive swims at the Woodbury invite,” Hoven said. “It will be a competitive meet.”

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