Swimming: Magalis springs to 6th in dive

• State meet

Farmington finished 33rd with 13 points at last week's state swimming and diving meet.

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Tyler Magalis just keeps getting better every year he dives at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The Farmington junior improved his score at the Class 3A State Meet for the third year in a row on Saturday, finishing sixth with a total score of 366.85. Magalis came in 12th against a tough field last year with a 310.85 and was 11th as a freshman with a score of 281.6.

Magalis moved up from seventh to sixth after scoring a 247.65 in the semifinal round. The top four finishers were all seniors and fifth place went to junior John Tellgren of Anoka, who was less than two points ahead of Magalis, leaving the Farmington diver in prime position for a run at an individual state title next March.

“Tyler was very excited to get to stand on the podium and earn a medal,” second-year Farmington head coach Ryan Hamen said. “He is already very optimistic for a higher place next year.”

Magalis’ performance helped the Tigers score 13 points and finish 33rd out of 42 scoring teams. Last year the team ended up in 26th place with 22 points, but that squad lost eight seniors to graduation. This year’s team will return all four of its state qualifiers, which gives Hamen plenty of optimism heading into next season.

“As a team we are young. We had two juniors and two sophomores go to state this year,” he said. “Next year we are very optimistic to bring more to state and place higher in sectionals. The boys are ready to be done, but many are already talking about what they want to do in the off season to prepare for next year in hopes to be much more dominant in our section and achieve more in state.”

Farmington’s other two state events at this year’s meet failed to make it out of the preliminary round. The 200 medley relay team of Magalis, Brian Huls, Loren Hatten and Zachary Holton finished 18th out of 25 teams with a time of 1:42.55 that matched their section qualifying time. Missota rival Prior Lake rounded out the top 16 with a time of 1:42.30.

“We had hoped to go a bit faster to get to swim on Saturday but we were only off by .25 seconds in doing so,” Hamen said.

Huls also came up short of a spot in the top 16 in the 50 freestyle. After swimming to a time of 22.04 at the section meet, he finished in a time of 22.31 to earn 20th out of 29.

“Everything has to be perfect in such a short race. He had a great start and finish, but mishapped on the turn just enough to place 20th,” Hamen said. “He is already determined to do better next year and is already optimistically looking forward to it.”

Edina ended up winning the meet, 307-215.6, over runner-up Minnetonka.

Tags: boys swimming and diving, sports, tigers, farmington, prep