2025 All-Minnesota Sports Awards Student First winner: Edina High’s Jiarui Xue

Jiarui Xue is a competitor, both as a swimmer and in the classroom. He excels in the pool or sitting at a desk.

The Edina senior will now look to flourish athletically and academically in the Ivy League at Princeton. A four-time member of the USA Swimming Scholastic All-America team and a National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association Academic All-American, Xue is the Star Tribune’s 2025 All-Minnesota Sports Awards Student First winner.

“Jiarui is as good in the classroom as he is in the pool,” Edina coach Scott Johnson said. “He has very high goals in swimming and life and continues to take steps toward achieving those goals.”

In the classroom, Xue had a cumulative GPA of 3.971.

In the pool this past season, Xue won the 500-yard freestyle in the Class 2A state meet for the third consecutive year. He became the first large-school swimmer in 40 years to accomplish that feat.

“Not many people can say they did that,” Xue said. “That’s pretty cool.”

He also finished as the runner-up in the 200 individual medley for a third consecutive year. It helped the Hornets successfully defend their team title and win their third championship in four years with Xue as a member of the varsity team.

“Jiarui made an immediate impact his first year on the team as a freshman,” Johnson said. “He often swims events to match up against certain opponents to maximize our team potential.”

Xue is Edina’s career record holder in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1 minute, 48.47 seconds and in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:25.19. He ranks in the top 50 in all eight individual swimming events for the state’s most prestigious program.

“My technique is pretty good in the water, and I have a high motor,” Xue said. “I had a pretty successful high school career.”

Xue qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming trials last summer in the 1,500-meter freestyle. He had to improve his time by seven seconds from the previous year to do so.

“That felt pretty good,” Xue said. “I was super happy.”

He still knows there is work to be done.

“All the other guys were still faster than me, and good competition pushes you to do better,” Xue said. “There is always a lot of room to improve, both athletically and academically.”