Orono ends Visitation’s run of girls swimming state titles at 10

Orono unseated 10-time defending champion Visitation on Saturday at Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, bringing home its first Class 1A state title in girls swimming and diving.

Orono totaled 259 team points, ahead of Visitation’s 234 and third-place Monticello’s 230.

Junior Graycin Andreen took first in the 200-yard freestyle (25.49 seconds) and was a part of Orono’s gold medal 200 free relay with senior Mallory Knutson, junior Lola Schottler and senior Elle Davis (1:36.53). The same relay team finished second in the 400 free (3:33.70).

Andreen also took silver in the 100 butterfly (26.48) and Knutson bronze in the 200 IM (28.03), but the team relied on strong scoring performances across all eight lanes to take the meet trophy.

“It’s never depending on one person or a couple people that lead the way,” Orono coach Mark Seguin said. “We have a group of some really feisty girls that like to compete, and when you put them together, that just kind of amplifies, and they find ways to just outdo even my expectations for them, and they do it time and time again.”

Early in the season, Orono tried something new, scheduling a dual meet against 2A heavyweight Minnetonka. The Spartans normally win most of their 1A meets, so they challenged themselves against dominant competition “knowing we would absolutely get slaughtered,” said Seguin.

“But I wanted to see them compete as hard as they could when they knew there was no chance to win,” he said. “[Seeing that], I thought they had the makeup of the team that could win a state championship.”

Afterward, the teams bought pizza and talked about their goals. For both teams, that was a state title, of course.

Monticello sophomore Adalynn Biegler set state records in the 50 free (22.38) and 100 free (49.20), helping Monticello to a third-place team finish. Edina’s Rachel Wittmer set the previous 50 free record (22.54) in 2015, while Chanhassen’s Zoe Avestruz swam a 49.22 100 free in 2014.

“When she puts her mind to something, she goes after it wholeheartedly,” said Stacy Biegler, Monticello’s head coach and Adalynn’s mother. “She’s just humble but very confident in herself, and she just loves to race and compete.”