M-SC Fusion wins Western Regional championship

At the University of Minnesota-Morris last night, the Melrose-Sauk Centre Fusion boys' swimming and diving team prevailed over a strong challenge from Montevideo to win the Western Regional Championship. M-SC tallied 264 team points compared to 215 for the Thunderhawks.

Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta finished third with 42 points.

More coverage from the Class A state swimming and diving meet

Here's Felipe Barreto in the 500 freestyle preliminary round on Friday:

Barreto 4th in 500 Free at state

Felipe Barreto is shown at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center following his fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle. PHOTO BY RANDY OLSON

Felipe Barreto finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle Friday during the opening round of preliminaries for the Fusion. We are waiting on results of the other races and will post them as they become available.

Barreto will advance to Saturday's finals.

Here's video from the meet:

Fusion team has much to be proud of

Parents and family gather to take photos of the Fusion team with their section runner-up trophy.

The Melrose-Sauk Centre Fusion boys' swimming and diving team earned a team playoff trophy for only the second time in the program's history since the 1996-97 pairing.

Great job!

Here's the video of the end of Felipe Barreto's swim through the 500 freestyle race finals...he broke the five-minute mark!


State will be great!

Fusion punch five tickets to state! Take section runner-up honors!

Through the first five events at the Section 3A boys' swimming and diving meet, the Melrose-Sauk Centre Fusion had a great showing with a number of guys finishing in the Top 8.

Felipe Barreto made the state cut in the 200 freestyle and took second place in that event. In the 200 IM, John Schwieters made the state cut and finished fourth.

The 200 medley relay team finished sixth; Justin Hoppe took eighth in the 200 freestyle, Ethan Ross took sixth in the 50 freestyle and Brent Blommel took eighth in the 50 freestyle to round out the rest of the Fusion team members who earned medals so far today.

Diving completed at about 15:20, and the remaining events will get started at about 15:40.

**Update at 17:25: the Fusion swimming and diving team won the Section 3A runner-up trophy after outdistancing Montevideo for the top spot behind section favorite and eventual champion Sartell-St.Stephen.

A total of five Fusion team members are heading to the Class A state swimming and diving meet, including: Felipe Barreto, Brent Blommel, Ethan Ross, John Schwieters and Keenan Pearson. Barreto broke the vaunted five-minute mark in the 500 freestyle while winning that event by a wide margin (4:58).

Highlighted by a stellar finish by the 400 freestyle relay team (3rd place, 3:23.1 that beats the state cut by over 4 seconds), the Fusion team earned 295 points to edge Montevideo (279 points) and Hutchinson (266 points).

State powerhouse Sartell-St.Stephen won the Section 3A title with 447 team points.

The team reacts to hearing the news about their superb team finish today...

Check out more in the Feb. 28 issue of the Sauk Centre Herald. The Class A state swimming and diving meet will be held on March 1-2 at the U of M Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. The Class A preliminaries for swimming begin at 12 p.m. on Friday, with the finals at the same time on Saturday.

Further information about the state swimming and diving meet will be posted later.

M-SC Fusion star Felipe Barreto interview

Click on the link to see a Herald video interview with Felipe Barreto, a senior stand out foreigh-exchange student on the Melrose-Sauk Centre boys' swimming and diving team:

http://www.saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=94&SubSectionID=381&NewsVideoID=182

Fusion take out Willmar! Boys' hoops wins at LQPV

The Sauk Centre-Melrose boys' swimming and diving team defeated Section 3A rival Willmar by a 106-80 score on Thursday night in a non-conference meet. They gear up for the prestigious Maroon and Gold Invite this Saturday in Minneapolis at the U of M Aquatic Center.

At Lac qui Parle Valley high school out in western Minnesota, the Sauk Centre Mainstreeters boys' basketball team defeated the Eagles 83-42 to improve to 3-0 in the West Central North Conference standings. Basically everything went right for Sauk Centre. They have a whole week off until their next game, as they travel to Minnewaska Area next Thursday (Jan. 10) for another conference game. The Lakers (3-5, 2-4 WCC-North) snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Yellow Medicine East 88-71 tonight.

While I'm at it, I will mention that Albany's girls' basketball team defeated Mora 64-40 in a Granite Ridge Conference contest tonight. They travel to Sauk Centre High School for a match up against the state-ranked Mainstreeters tomorrow night. Mora is 1-3 in the GRC and 4-5 overall; the Huskies improved to 9-2 overall and 4-0 in the GRC.

For boys' hockey fans, the Prairie Centre Area North Stars host Bagley in Long Prairie tomorrow night at the Expo Arena on the Todd County fairgrounds.. The JV game starts at 5:15 p.m.

~RO

Fusion swimming and diving is runner-up at Brainerd!

The Sauk Centre-Melrose Fusion boys' swimming and diving team had a terrific day on the pool today at the Brainerd Invitational, as they placed second in a field of seven teams behind the champion and host Warriors. Team scores were as follows: 1st Brainerd 543; 2nd SC-M 456; 3rd Monticello 402; 4th Minneapolis Southwest 381; 5th Perham 194; 6th Bemidji 163; 7th Moorhead 120.

Sauk Centre's Felipe Barreto set a new 500 FS record when he placed first (5:09.83); he also took second in the 200 FS (1:54.62).


Up next: a trip to Willmar on Tuesday, Jan. 3 in a match up between Section 3A rival teams. The dual begins at 6 p.m. at the Willmar High School.

*Update on Thursday night: the Mainstreeters girls' basketball team (7-0) blew out St. Cloud Cathedral 66-36 in the semifinal game of the Pierz Healy tournament; they face the winner of the Pierz vs. Crosby-Ironton game, which starts at 8 p.m. tonight. The Crusaders fall to 4-3 overall; they are 3-1 (three-way tie for second) in the Granite Ridge Conference. The Prairie Centre Area North Stars (1-7) lost 4-0 to Faribault in the first round of the Minnehaha Tournament. No word yet on who they play tomorrow.

The girls' basketball team will face Pierz in the championship; the Pioneers defeated the Rangers 62-41 in the other semifinal tonight.