Austin Packers boys swimming and diving team third in eight-team Hutchinson Invitational Saturday

The Austin Packers boys swimming and diving team was on the road to Hutchinson Saturday for the 8-team Jerry Carlson Memorial Inviational, and it was the Packers using one first-place, three second-place and 11 top-five finishes overall to take third with a total of 329.5 points.  Mankato East/Loyola was the team champion with 417 points, follwed by the host Tigers in second with 354 points, and following Austin was Mankato West, Rosemount, New Prague, Montevideo and Dassel-Cokato-Litchfield in the order of finish.

High finishers for Austin included the team’s 200 medley relay team of Brent Dahl, Winston Walkup, Joey Hillkin and Lucas Meyers, who took second with a time of 1:47.40, Dahl swam to a third-place finish in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:15.29, and Walkup was a runner-up in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.90 seconds.

Austin’s Joey Hillkin took third for the Packers in the 100 butterfly with a final time of 59.92 seconds, Kenny Cabeen was second in the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.23 and Austin’s 200 freestyle relay team of Winston Walkup, Joey Hillkin, Carter Holt and Cabeen were first for the Packers with a final time of 1:36.27, just ahead of second-place New Prague at 1:36.89.  Brent Dahl tied for third with Ethan Bartell of Mankato West in the 100 backstroke, as both finished with a time of 1:01.57, and Walkup took fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:07.61.  In the 400 freestlyle relay, the Austin team of Zach Evenson, Lucas Meyers, Brent Dahl and Kenny Cabeen were fourth Saturday with a final time of 3:34.86.

The Packers will play host to Rochester Century for their home opener Thursday night, with the varsity action set to start at Bud Higgins Pool at 6:30 p.m.