The Prior Lake boys swim/dive team earned multiple state spots in a tough Section 2AA field.

The Lakers qualified three individuals and two relays to the Class AA competition, which is March 3-5 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

Junior Owen Dwyer qualified in two individual events and on two relays to lead Prior Lake, while junior Blake Wallen was the team’s only section champion.

Wallen captured the diving competition Feb. 24 at the Eden Prairie Community Center with a 369.90 points. Last winter, Wallen just missed the state medal (top eight) in diving finishing ninth.

The section finals followed diving Feb. 25. Dwyer was fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:56.79 and fifth in the 100 butterfly (51.55).

The top four divers make state, along with the winning relay team and the top two individuals in the swimming events. The other way to get there is by meeting the state qualifying time, but not in diving.

That’s how Dwyer qualified, as well as the Lakers’ 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.

The 200 freestyle team of Dwyer, sophomores Victor Trinh and Kaiden Cheung and ninth-grader Ethan Kosin took third with a time of 1:27.96, beating the state cut by more than a second (1:29.60).

The same foursome was roughly four seconds under the state cut (3:16.75), taking fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:12.72).

Kosin also finished runner-up in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:42.49 to earn his first-ever individual state berth. Cheung and Dwyer competed at state last year on the Lakers’ 400 freestyle relay.

Prior Lake ended up fourth in the section team standings with 283 points. Minnetonka won the title (457.5), followed by Eden Prairie (455) and Chaska-Chanhassen (352). Waconia was fifth (168), followed by Shakopee (154), Bloomington Jefferson (127) and Burnsville (82.5).

The Lakers also had some close calls at sections. Trinh missed state in both the 50 and 100 freestyles by a combined margin of .27.

Trinh was sixth in the 50 freestyle (22.0), missing the state cut by .11. He was seventh in the 100 freestyle (48.36), missing the cut by .16.

Cheung also narrowly missed qualifying in the 100 butterfly. He was seventh (52.93), missing the cut by .16. He was eighth in the 200 individual medley (2:00.59).

Kosin ended up sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:46.36), missing the cut by .72.

The 200 medley relay team of sophomore Jack Clay, senior Levente Szabo, ninth-grader Griffin Leining and junior Jackson Stout ended up fifth (1:14.12) with the state cut being 1:38.70.

Stout made the finals (top eight) in the 100 breaststroke taking sixth (1:02.11).

Prior Lake had 13 swims in the consolations finals. Senior Adam Mellott had the best finish taking 10th in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.30), while ninth-grader Reese Haycraft was 11th in the 500 freestyle (5:00.36) and Stout was 12th in the 50 freestyle (22.93).

Other finishes for Prior Lake came from Leining in the 200 freestyle (14th, 1:53.11) and in the 100 butterfly (13th, 54.93), junior Blake Viger in the 200 freestyle (15th, 1:53.55), eighth-grader Braxton Helmers in the 200 individual medley (15th, 2:08.13) and the 100 backstroke (14th, 56.66), sophomore Tyler Leong in the 100 butterfly (15th, 58.46), senior Zach Peterson in the 100 freestyle (15th, 50.17) and the 100 backstroke (13th, 56.05), ninth-grader Matt Ondracek in the 500 freestyle (14th, 5:3.54), sophomore Evan Schaible in the 500 freestyle (16th, 5:23.28) and senior Alexander Beck in the 100 breaststroke (15th, 1:06.68).

In diving, senior Matthew Weinberger finished 12th (182.30), while junior Zach Glashagel was 15th (162.35).