Caster leading Century’s shot at state title

A wide variety of skills can make a swimmer successful.

For Lauryn Caster of Century, her freestyle stroke helped lead the Patriots back to the top of the West Region at last weekend’s conference meet, where the Patriots ended Minot’s hopes of a three-peat with a 433.5-428 victory.

“The whole meet, none of us wanted to know the score, so we were all in it to just get our personal bests and have fun,” Caster said. “So at the end, knowing that we won, that was a surprise for us, and our excitement was through the roof. It was a great feeling.”

Caster started swimming all the way back in her youth in Minnesota, where she took lessons that she brought with her to North Dakota when her family moved to Bismarck.

“I started at a very young age in Minneapolis with normal swim lessons, and none of my parents swam, so it was a little random,” Caster said. “I joined the swim club when we moved here, and I fell in love with the water. It’s been a great journey, and all the hard work and dedication I’ve put into it is paying off.”

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Joining the Patriots swim team in seventh grade, Caster first advanced to the state meet in her eighth grade year, during which time the Patriots’ dynasty at the state meet was in its heyday.

“I started in seventh grade, I started with Gracie Zottnick as a team captain my seventh grade year, and now she’s one of our assistant coaches,” Caster said. “So it’s cool to see how long I’ve been part of the team, that one of my team captains is now one of our assistant coaches.

“My eighth grade year, me and Sadie Nelson were the only eighth graders that qualified for state that year, and it was a ‘wow, this is my sport, this is what I want to do and these are the goals I want to achieve’ moment.”

Caster has always had an affinity for the freestyle stroke, and it was with that stroke that she first qualified for the state meet in 2019.

“I still can say I’m a breaststroker, that was one of my good events, I placed in that event at state my sophomore year, but I fell out of it because I found that I could be comfortable in longer freestyle events,” Caster said. “I found my groove in those events. While I’ve always been able to swim other events, but not as strongly as my freestyle events.”

Sneaking into the top-16 in the 50 freestyle with a 16th-place finish in the prelims, Caster had an impressive second swim and jumped to 11th with a time of 25.59 to earn the Patriots much-needed points as they beat West Fargo Sheyenne for the title.

Also taking 29th in the 100 freestyle, it was a solid but quiet start to the state career of a swimmer that would end up as a finalist for Senior Athlete of the Year at last weekend’s West Region meet.

“I’ve always had that dream of being a senior captain and being one of the older girls on the team that the younger girls look up to because of their talent and drive towards the sport,” Caster said. “Now knowing what I’m leaving my legacy as, I couldn’t be more grateful for the people that came ahead of me that taught me the things I needed to know now.”

As her time with the Patriots continued, Caster’s repertoire at the state meet expanded.

In the finals-only 2020 meet, her ninth-grade season, Caster competed again in the 50 free and 100 free races, taking eighth in the 50 and 11th in the 100, and was added in as the third leg of Century’s championship 200-yard freestyle relay team, in which she swam with Paige Keller, Taylor Cook and Sarah Dorrheim.

The 2021 meet, the last of Century’s seven straight state team titles, Caster’s role in Century’s lineup expanded again, as did her medal collection.

Caster swam the fourth leg of the 200 medley relay that Century won, was third in the 50 freestyle, earned a two-peat in the 200 free relay along with Olivia Schuchard, Cook and fellow now-senior Mady Tivis, and earned a third-place finish in the 100 breaststroke, the first time she had competed at state and not swam a freestyle stroke.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of the championships we won, but since our loss last year, it wasn’t necessarily devastating for those of us who have been part of those teams,” Caster said. “This year, we came in stronger, and now, no matter what happens, we’re going to be proud of how we swam and give it our all.”

Last year brought a bit of a change for the Patriots: not only did they lose the West Region championship to Minot for the second year in a row, the Patriots state title streak was finally snapped, with the Patriots finishing third behind West Fargo Sheyenne and Minot.

Minot has been a challenge for the Patriots the past few seasons as they have rebuilt their girls swimming team into a state contender, and it’s a tough team to compete against for Caster for personal reasons as well.

“I’ve always been close with some of the girls on the Minot team, because my parents grew up with some of the parents on the Minot team,” Caster said. “Some of those girls are my best friends, but when it comes time to race, we’re in it to race and I don’t let our friendships get in the way.”

Despite the team defeats in the 2022 West Region and state championship meets, Caster had a good run, with her West Region performance looking very similar to the same meet a year later.

In the 2022 West Region meet, Caster won the 200 freestyle and contributed the opening leg of Century’s winning 200 free relay while taking second in the 100 freestyle and swimming the first leg of the runner-up 400 free relay.

Caster had the exact same results repeat this past weekend; she won the 200 freestyle, took second in the 100 freestyle and swam the opening legs of the first-place 200 free relay and the second-place 400 free relay.

“I was very happy with how I swam both individually and on our relays,” Caster said. “With all the hard work we did throughout the season, the times I achieved were better than the times I had last year at the West Region meet, which was exciting. Now I’m focused on next weekend and the goal I want to achieve with my times next weekend.”

Taking first and second in the two relay races she swam, Caster was appreciative of how her teammates worked together in the events to finish in the top two.

“I led off both freestyle relays, and knowing that I get to get us a lead and get us off to a good start, that gets everybody else pumped up,” Caster said. “That 400 is always the closest race, and we had Mady Tivis come out of the breaststroke for that, which is always challenging and she still pulled through. We were still proud of how we swam, even though we didn’t win the 400, and we know this weekend will be better.”

Caster has dealt with some injuries during her career with the Patriots, including during this season, and she is appreciative of the fact that she is healthy and ready to perform at her highest level one more time this weekend.

“It’s been a challenging year, especially with an injury that’s kept me from being able to hit some of the times I wanted to this season,” Caster said. “After a hard day at school, it’s nice to take it out with a day in the pool. After a day of practice, knowing that I worked hard and that my team worked hard, it’s a great feeling.”

She’ll hope for a slight improvement on last year’s state meet; while she had her first three-win state meet, taking individual golds in the 200 free and the 100 free and swimming the opening leg of Century’s winning 200 free relay, her fourth swim came as the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, in which the Patriots finished fifth behind West Fargo Sheyenne, Minot, Legacy and Dickinson.

“I know my times and I know what I’m capable of,” Caster said. “It’s all about staying positive and making sure we’re getting the job done. I’m not swimming my events just for my own satisfaction, it’s satisfaction for getting my team points. Knowing that I’m doing things for my team drives me to be better in my events.”

After spending much of this season not taking in much of the reality surrounding it being her final season with the Patriots, Caster said the emotions and feelings about it hit when the Patriots were announced as this year’s West Region champions.

“Senior night, I just got through the meet and senior introductions, I had to not let that bother me that day, so it’s been in the back of my mind most of the season,” Caster said. “Then when I found out we won, it hit me that we hadn’t won West Regions since 2020, and knowing that we ended my last one on a good note really hit me. Now I have one more week left.”

With one last week of practice before heading off to swim for Grand Canyon State, Caster is hoping that her time with fellow seniors Tivis, Elizabeth Cave, Cadence Cook, Rachael Lubale and Sady Nelson are both memorable and productive.

“Within the last year I really started to push myself to try and compete at the collegiate level,” Caster said. 

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