The Fargo North Spartans and Davies Eagles met up at North’s pool one last time in the 2023-2024 swim season on Feb 27. Besides EDC & State, this was the final meet, hence its popularity, with filled up benches and standing-room only. This was rightfully a very popular meet, with plenty of records broken, as well as one final chance for swimmers to qualify for the EDC and State meets.
As somebody who hardly knew anything about swimming prior, I talked to somebody on the sidelines and got some information on how it all works! The people there were friendly and easy to approach, and gave me some insightful information to keep in mind before the swimmers started. He also gave me some great questions to ask Jackson Derby, including why he doesn’t do the diving portion, because, and I quote “only real men dive”.
Speaking of Jackson Derby, he was one of the swimmers who qualified for EDC, getting an impressive time of two minutes and twenty-two seconds for the 200m freestyle! While he got into it the previous swim meet at Grand Forks, we still got to see his potential throughout this specific meet. Towards the end of this meet, heat 1 of the 50 freestyle & heat 2 of the 100 freestyle, he had times of one minute and four seconds for the 50 and one minute and four seconds for the 100.
There were also some other remarkable swimmers who even broke records during this meet! Senior Ty Boutwell had a record-breaking time of 21.19 seconds in the 50 freestyle. Not only this, but he also broke records in the 100 freestyle, the 200 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle. Freshman Oliver Tackling also broke a record in the diving section, making him qualify for EDC & state.
Overall, counting up points, North had the victory on Davies with a final score of 109 vs 77. There are so many successful swimmers, yet I believe that it doesn’t get nearly the recognition it deserves. While they play during the basketball & hockey season, I hardly ever hear about swimming in the discussions at school. Keep an eye out for these swimmers and go to events, you won’t regret it!