Winona at 2009 Boy's Swimming & Diving Championships prelims.

So I ref'ed both prelims and finals of Class A & AA. On Friday evening I caught up with Coach Amy & Coach JJ when they showed up for the Class AA Prelims. Kristina Kleinow was along to help coach and Louie LaPorta had come along to see what the meet was all about. Of course Winona's two state qualifiers were there, Ryan Whalen and Travis Bernardy. Ryan was seeded first in both the 50 FR and the 100FR. Travis was seeded 11th in the 100 BR.
They both, along with Louie, got to participate in the Contestants Entry. This is where, to music, the swimmers enter by Section, walking up on both sides of the pool while the attending Teams are announced. One side being led by the Official Referee, and the other by the Official Starter. They meet up at the center behind the starting blocks facing the scoreboard and they play the National Anthem.

Ryan swam first in his prelim for the 50 FR. Seeded first, he was in Lane 4 of the fifth heat, so he had a few swims to watch before he could go. When time came he bettered his seed time, finishing first in a blazing, All American Consideration time of 21.27. There were only 6 swimmers in prelims that were in the 21's. By the time they were done qualifying for Saturday's Finals, all 8 of them were in the 21's separated by only 0.47 seconds.

After a short break where the diving would take place in finals and four quick heats of the 100 Fly, Ryan was back at it in the 100 FR where he was again seeded 1st coming in. He was battling against the same competitors as the 50 with an addition of the swimmer from Edina that had qualified first in the 200 FR earlier in the second event. It was evident that the Edina swimmers had not tapered until State, as he dropped 1.7 seconds off his 100 FR seed time to take the prelim. Ryan swam with 0.3 s of his seed time and made the finals seeded fourth, right ahead of another Edina swimmer that had shaved a full second off his seed time.

After 3+ hours of watching swimming, Travis finally got to his 100 BR. Swimming in the third heat, it was a tough field. Coming in at 1:00.40, Travis was staring at a field that already had six swimmers under 1:00 and one had swum a time at Sections that was better than the Class AA record. When Prelims were done, it was obvious many had held off taper until State. Of the finalists, 11 of the top 16 dropped between 1 to 2 seconds of time, including a new Class AA record. Travis was bracketed in his heat by one sub minute swimmer and another than dropped 1.6 seconds off his seed time. Travis' first 50 split had him in contention, but the final 50 proved to be too draining and he finished 0.3 seconds out of the consolation round. It was a good swim in a tough field.