The growth of a team can be hard to measure throughout a season. There are many factors that come in, especially in swimming when so much depends on the times.

Last year at the Wright County Conference Championships, the Dassel-Cokato/Litchfield boys swimming team didnt hit 200 points. This time around, the Chargers hit it and then-some, scoring 219 points to finish fifth.

I thought we did amazing today, a lot of drops in time, junior Jackson Resop said. We got a couple of upper placements... that was really good for our team morale.

There were only two top-five finishes for the Chargers. Logan Christopherson came in third in the 100 breaststroke and Russell Wesa took fifth in the 100 backstroke. Christopherson also had a 10th place finish in the 200 IM.

Resop was the other individual swimmer that had top-10 placements. He took sixth in the 50 freestyle and eighth in the 100 butterfly.

All A-team relays had top-10 finishes as well. The medley team of Resop, Christopherson, Joe Carlson, and Jacob Huhn had the best finish with sixth place.

For a young team with no seniors, there was a lot of promising teamwork going on with the Chargers. The team has come a long way and on Saturday it showed up on the sideline.

Everybody was cheering each other on, Christopherson said. There was a lot of team spirit. Overall (it helped) everybody dropped a bunch of time, so thats good.

A conference championship might be cool, but so is doing well in sections and having a chance of making state. Thats where the Chargers find themselves. The goal of the swimming season is to have your best times of the season show up at sections, and hopefully its enough to get you into a state event. With the time drops exhibited Saturday, the Chargers are confident in the direction results are going. But they also know that there is still work that needs to be done.

I think just banking on seeing where were at, and just looking at how we swam today and doing the drill work to improve, Riley Defries said on where he thinks the team needs to improve. If were doing bad in a certain area, work on that at practice the whole time.

But overall, with the results of sections still pending, the Chargers have a lot to be excited about heading into next season with the whole team coming back.

Itll definitely grow and I know were going to have to push ourselves, Resop said. Were going to have to get ready. Were going to have to mentally prepare. But we have the effort, weve just got to put it in.

DC/L next competes in the Section 3A championship beginning with prelims at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, at Hutchinson. The finals begin at 1:30 Saturday, Feb. 22. Fellow WCC team Hutch will be in attendance at the section meet, along with Monticello, Princeton, Rocori, St. Cloud Apollo, Willmar and Montevideo.

2020 Boys Wright County Conference Championship (Feb. 8)

1. Hutchinson 563, 2. Delano-Watertown-Mayer 514, 3. Orono 371, 4. Waconia 350, 5. Dassel-Coakto/Litchfield 219, 6. Mound Westonka 157

200 medley relay (17): 1. Hutch A (Conner Hogan, Noah Tague, Tristin Nelsen, Dane Thovson) 1:43.13, 6. DCL A (Jackson Resop, Logan Christopherson, Joe Carlson, Jacob Huhn) 1:52.08, 10. DCL B (Max Haataja, Colin Tormanen, Elijah Slinden, Russell Wesa) 2:08.97, DCL C (William Carlson, Justice Borg, Joseph Kotila, Steven Mengelkoch) 2:22.84, 14. DCL D (Elliot Fluck, Nick Pofahl, Aiden Berube, Mick Gallagher) 2:32.57, 16. DCL E (Ben Johnson, Ty Movrich, Evan Johnson, Jack Unze) 2:59.60

200 freestyle (26): 1. Colby Kern (D) 1:48.50, 12. Emmanual Johnson 2:07.59, 14. Riley Defries 2:07.70, 15. Isaiah Kalis 2:09.01, 19. Anders Borg 2:23.53, Elijah Slinden 2:40.98, Zach Stockland 2:59.50

200 IM (20): 1. Josh Johnston (MW) 1:58.90, 10. Christopherson 2:19.87, 15. Joe Carlson 2:27.98, 19. Tormanen 2:52.56

50 freestyle (53): 1. David Sinclair (W) 21.94, 6. Resop 24.39, 11. Wesa 25.91, 14. Huhn 26.44, 20. Gallagher 28.39, Movrich 30.22, William Carlson 30.68, Berube 32.10, Mathias Sliden 32.71, Fluck 33.53, Unze 34.26, Evan Johnson 34.28, Ben Johnson 48.92

1 mtr diving (7): 1. Alex Oestreich 413.60

100 butterfly (15): 1. Samuel Sinclair (W) 54.49, 8. Resop 1:02.41, 12. Joe Carlson 1:05.69

100 freestyle (41): 1. David Sinclair (W) 48.18, 11. Defries 57.75, 18. Huhn 1:01.32, 19. Mengelkoch 1:01.79, 20. Anders Borg 1:03.29, Fluck 1:17.05, Unze 1:17.54, Evan Joohnson 1:20.06, Mathias Slinden 1:20.26, Stockland 1:23.37

500 freestyle (21): 1. Matthew Krogman (W) 5:07.09, 16. Emmanual Johnson 5:48.69, 18. Kalis 6:01.52, 19. Haataja 6:09.02

200 freestyle relay (22): 1. Hutch A (Hogan, Oestreich, Nelsen, Matthew Olberg) 1:33.36, 9. DCL A (Resop, Joe Carlson, Huhn, Emmanual Johnson) 1:43.16, 10. DCL B (Tormanen, Wesa, Mengelkoch, Defries) 1:46.54, 17. DCL D (Elijah Slinden, Stockland, Kotila, Berube) 2:07.87, 21. DCL E (Anders Borg, Evan Johnson, Mathias Slinden, Ben Johnson) 2:35.94, DCL C (Gallagher, Justice Borg, Pofahl, Kalis) DQ

100 backstroke (22): 1. Nick Black (D) 54.23, 5. Wesa 1:06.29, 13. Haataja 1:15.38, 15. William Carlson 1:21.01, Mengelkoch 1:16.88, Movrich 1:28.42

100 breaststroke (27): 1. Johnston (MW) 59.80, 3. Christopherson 1:06.10, 13. Justice Borg 1:20.97, 14. Tormanen 1:21.64, 15. Pofahl 1:22.06, Kotila 1:33.24

400 freestyle relay (17): 1. Waconia A (Krogman, Samuel Sinclair, Nathan Sannito, David Sinclair) 3:24.08, 8. DCL A (Defries, Emmanual Johnson, Kalis, Christopherson) 3:53.86, 13. DCL B (Anders Borg, Haataja, Gallagher, Justice Borg) 4:22.94, 16. DCL C (Elijah Slinden, Berube, Pofahl, William Carlson) 4:54.77, 17. DCL D (Stockland, Unze, Movrich, Kotila) 5:06.27

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BOYS SWIMMING: Chargers take fifth at WCC Championships; look ahead to sections - Crow River Media