The Austin swimming and diving team is headed to the Class A state meet with as much swimmers as the team has had in years and the goals are as big as they can be.

The Packers, who will have seven swimmers competing at state, aren’t just hoping to get multiple swimmers on the podium, they’re hoping to break some AHS school records at the Class A meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis at noon Friday and Saturday.

Austin has has a legitimate shot at crowning a state champion as junior Craig Heimark is seeded No. 1 in the 100-yard freestyle and No. 4 in the 50-yard freestyle. Heimark had to settle for eighth place in the 100 last season when he was competing while sick. This year he’s hoping to see how well he can swim while staying healthy.

“t’s a lot less pressure now because of how well I was able to do when I felt like total crap. Now that I’m coming in healthy and better, it’s just more motivation,” Heimark said. “I definitely want to still stay ranked number one and I think I can. Going into it, I need to be more focused on swimming my turns and swimming my race instead of worrying about what they’re swimming.”

Heimark started swimming the 50-free this season to help the Packers match up better in a dual meet. Heimark set the AHS school record in his second time in the event and now he has a chance to get on the podium at state in the 50.

If Heimark needs any more support besides what he’s already getting from his coaches and teammates, he’ll have the advice of his older sister Helen Heimark, who was a multiple state qualifier with the Packers.

“She knows what the pressure feels like,” Craig said. “She’s able to calm me down before the race and give me an extra motivational speech and keep me from psyching myself out too much.”

Heimark wasn’t the only Packer who was sick at the state meet last year. The whole team was battling a bug, but that didn’t stop them from placing third in one relay and fifth in another. Austin is hoping it can get a couple of relays in the top-three this year.

Austin senior Sawyer Myers will be swimming in his third and last Class A state meet for the Packers. He’s excited to leave it all out in the pool.

“Right now I”m mostly just excited to see what we can do and it’ll be fun. I’ll worry about the other emotions later,” Myers said. “We just feed off of each others’ races. It gets loud in there and it’s fun to go out there and see what you can do.”

Myers was a half-second from breaking an AHS record that was set in 1977 in the 100-yard medley at the Section 1A meet and he’s hoping to break that record this weekend.

Myers and his teammate Isaac Christopherson, will each be swimming 850 total yards on Friday and they may do that again on Saturday if they advance in all four of their events.

Needless to say, they have been preparing for a workout.

“You have a lot more to think about,” Myers said. “When you only have a couple of events, you just think about them and you have a lot more energy. By the time state’s over with, I’m tired.”

Christopherson was a first-time state qualifier last year as an eighth grader and he said he’s a lot more comfortable this time around.

“I definitely feel a lot better,” he said. “I’m not super scared about it anymore. I’m a little nervous having to swim in four events this time. It makes it a little tougher, because there’s a little more stress.”

Austin junior Ben Walker is within reach of an AHS state record. In the Section 1A meet, Walker was .04 of a second from breaking a Packer 100-yard butterfly record that was set in 1978. Walker is hoping to break that record and he is hoping to make Saturday’s finals.

“I feel like there’s more pressure this year, because I’m ranked higher,” Walker said. “At the same time, being there last year does help. It was a lot of practice over the summer and I started with captain’s practice right after cross country.”

Austin will have two first-time state qualifiers swimming for them on Friday — Matthew Knoll and Sam Clasen. Both are members of the 200-yard medley relay team that cut off five seconds in a week to qualify for the state meet.

“We all didn’t expect it to happen,” Knoll said. “The prelims got us going and gave us that goal.”

Sam was an alternate at the state meet last season and he hopes that helps him when he swims at state for the first time Friday.

“t definitely helps to have [teammates] withexperience like those guys have and I was able to see what it’s like as an alternate last year,” Clasen said.

The Packers have gradually been getting stronger over the past few years and they likely aren’t going anywhere after this year. Although Myer, Sam Clasen and Knoll are seniors, the team has a bulk of strong underclassmen coming up.

“Even as young a team as we are, we’re still staying competitive with the rest of the state,” Seth Clasen said.

Aiming for the Finals

Top-8 finishers advance to Saturday’s finals and 9-16 advance to Saturday’s consolation finals.

200-yard medley relay: The team of Sam Clasen, Matthew Knoll, Ben Walker and Seth Clasen is 17th seeded out of 24 teams with a time of 1:43.84. A team from Chaska has the top seed with a time of 1:35.88.

200-yard freestyle: Austin freshman Isaac Christopherson is seeded 10th out of 27 swimmers with a time of 1:48.37. Tommy Weiss of St. Thomas Academy has the top seed with a time of 143.55.

200-yard individual medley: Austin senior Sawyer Myers is seeded 10th out of 28 swimmers with a time of 2:03.06. Will Grassle of Breck-Blake has the top seed with a time of 1:57.97

50-yard freestyle: Austin junior Craig Heimark is seeded fourth out of 24 swimmers with a time of 21.83 seconds. Matt Trettin of Hutchinson has the top-seed with a time of 21.34 seconds.

100-yard butterfly: Austin junior Ben Walker is seeded sixth out of 25 swimmers with a time of 53.25 seconds. Austin junior Seth Clasen is seeded 12th with a time of 54.89 seconds. Zachary Holman of Watt-M-Delano has the top seed with a time of 51.56 seconds.

100-yard freestyle: Heimark is seeded first out of 21 swimmers with a time of 47.38 seconds. Matt Tretin of Hutchinson has the No. 2 seed with a time of 47.53 seconds.

500-yard freestyle: Myers is seeded 16th out of 36 swimmers with a time of 5:02.15. Christopherson is seeded 30th with a time of 5:07.81. Warren Sexson of STA has the top-seed with a time of 4:46.30.

200-yard freestyle relay: The team of Heimark, Seth Clasen, Christopherson and Myers is seeded sixth out of 22 teams. A team from Breck-Blake is the top-seed with a time of 1:27.45.

400-freestyle relay: The team of Heimark, Christopherson, Walker and Myers is seeded fifth with a time of 3:19.29. A team from STA has the top-seed with a time of 3:12.78.