Class A State swimming: Aaseng paces Cards with fourth-place finish in 500

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Alexandria senior Kris Aaseng just missed ending his career with a top three finish in the 500-yard freestyle on Saturday afternoon at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

Aaseng saw how close he was with Felipe Barreto of Melrose-Sauk Centre coming down to the final 25 yards and did everything he could to touch the wall in front of him. In the end, Barreto had just a little bit more as he hit the wall in third place with a time of 4:50.23. Aaseng was right behind him with a fourth-place finishing time of 4:50.52.

"It's disappointing," Aaseng said. "Off my seed time, I should have gotten third. I'm 4:48 and to see it end up 4:50, I don't know. I'll take it. It's not too much of a difference, just two seconds."

Head coach Mark Storhaug was happy with the way his senior swam. A top three finish just wasn't meant to be on a day when Tanner Alms of Red Wing won a third straight state title in the 500 and broke his own Class A state record with a time of 4:36.73.

"I have no complaints about how [Kris] swam," Alexandria head coach Mark Storhaug said. "Sometimes you can't control what your competition does and some people are going to surprise you down here."

That was part of a packed day for Aaseng. He swam the 200 freestyle earlier, finishing 11th in 1:46.90. After the 500, he immediately swam the anchor in the 200-freestyle relay with teammates Eric Moe, Kyle Blank and Max Jacobson. They finished 13th in a time of 1:31.65.

Elliot Jacobson had the second best finish among Alexandria swimmers who made it to the final day. The junior ended up 10th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.72. Aaron Pietrowski added a 12th-place finish in the 500 freestyle and the 200-medley relay team of Zac Bartolomeo, Jacobson, Mark Kallevig and Sean Norheim took 12th (1:43.22) to add to the Alexandria point total.

"I'm proud of all our guys," Storhaug said. "Kris had a great weekend. All the guys, even today in the finals, we still had better swims than yesterday, so it's a great weekend for us all together."

Aaseng ends his career as a two-time all state distance swimmer for Alexandria. He wanted to add a third-place finish to his resume, but he wasn't going to dwell on coming up just short of that quest.

"I did more than I ever thought I would be able to," Aaseng said. "I'm happy with what whatever. I got all conference, all section, all state so I've accomplished everything I ever wanted to."

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