Winhawks fight the good fight, come up one race short

The Winona Winhawks hosted the Owatonna Huskies Tuesday night in a dual meet match-up. After having seen each other three days earlier at the Section 1AA True Team, everyone knew it was going to be a close contest for both the JV and the Varsities. Coach Burt recognizes that the dual meet season, while helpful to instill some racing experience and obtain some seed times, the dual record means nothing going into the end of the season. On Monday the meet the girls had swam some 5,000 yards. In most cases, the swims reflected it, but in a few cases, even after swimming almost 3 miles the day prior, the girls swam season best times.

The Opening 200 Med Relay saw Owatonna’s strength right out of the gate. The marquee swimmers for Owatonna swam a sub 2 minute race against the Winhawk team of JR Sam Quandahl, FR Alexandra Zuelke, 8th GR Reese Galewski and SR Co-Captain Aimee Peterson. Both JV and Varsity had the same result.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 10 Winona 4
JVARSITY Owatonna – 10 Winona - 4

The 200 FR was uncontested for the Winona JV and SR Cassie McKinley just touched out 7th GR McKenzie Porter. The Varsity event saw Owatonna going 1-2 with SO Oliva Staats, 8th Gr Haley O’Neil and JR Erika Johnsrud scoring points for 3, 4, &5.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 20 Winona 10
JVARSITY OWATONNA – 10 Winona - 17

The 200IM saw the JV’ers cede 1&2 to Owatonna but SO Mackenzie Brosnahan won the Varsity event in a near season best 2:22.08. 8th Gr McKenna Marg and JR Erin Bernardy scored points for Winona as well.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 27 Winona - 19
JVARSITY Owatonna – 21 Winona – 22

The Sprinting events have been a strong suit of the Winhawks all season long but Tuesday night they were challenged. The JV Winhawks brought home 1&2, but Owatonna’s O’Neill won the varsity event with JR Bridget Bawek and SR Co-Captain Aimee Peterson bringing home 2 & 3.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 36 Winona 26
JVARSITY Owatonna – 27 Winona – 32

Diving ended the Owatonna scoring streak, the Winhawk JV’ers Janelle Mueller, Megan Seeley and Sarah Scherbring took 3, 4, and 5 respectively for a 9-6 edge in points. The Winhawk Varsity divers scored points for 2, 3, &5 for an even 8-8 split.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 44 Winona - 34
JVARSITY Owatonna – 33 Winona - 41

The 100FL saw the younger Winhawks hold the older Huskies at bay. 8th Gr Reese Galewski and FR Alexandra Zuelke finished 2&3 and along with Erin Bernardy’s 5th place finish they pulled out another 8-8 split.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 52 Winona 42
JVARSITY Owatonna – 33 Winona – 47

The 100FR saw SR. Co-Captain Deni Cisewski winning the JV event and the Varsity swimmers Brosnahan, Bawek and O’Neil finishing 1,3,5 respectfully outscoring Owatonna 10 -6 to bring the meet within 6.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 58 Winona 52
JVARSITY Owatonna – 39 Winona – 57


For the 500FR, it looked like Coach Burt sent his swimmers to the starting blocks with orders to churn water. Winhawk JV’er McKenzie Porter swam the race of the season for her, improving over her best swim by nearly 9 seconds and winning the heat by almost a half a minute. In the Varsity event, The Winhawks swam hard, with JR Sam Quandahl being touched out for second in a season’s best 5:52.71 and SR Co-Captain Aimee Peterson one one hundredth off her season best in 6:06.11 for 4th.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 68 Winona 58
JVARSITY Owatonna – 48 Winona - 63

The 200 FR relay was an example of the sprinting depth of the Winhawks. The JV Winhawks took 2&3 while the Varsity Team of Staats, O’Neil, Bawek and Brosnahan won in a season low of 1:45.72. The B relay of FR Grace Ell, 8th Gr Gabby Kleinow, JR Erika Johnsrud, and 8th Gr Reese Galewski brought home a solid third. And a big 10 – 4 scoring punch to close within 4.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 72 Winona 68
JVARSITY Owatonna – 56 Winona - 69

The 100BK saw a solid JV win for SR Cassie McKinley, but Owatonna was strong in the Varsity holding the Winhawks looked like they were tiring bring home places 3,4,&5.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 82 Winona 74
JVARSITY Owatonna – 64 Winona - 77

The 100BR was more of the same with Owatonna outscoring the now tiring Winhawk JV 12 -5. The Varsity event was a great race wire to wire with FR Alexandra Zuelke swimming hard and coming back at the end but getting touched out at the pad.

Score
VARSITY Owatonna – 93 Winona - 79
JVARSITY Owatonna – 76 Winona 81

The 400Fr Relay saw the same scenario for the leaders in both JV and Varsity. The Winhawk JV’ers had the meet won; all they had to do was swim a clean race without jumping early on the exchanges. A sit turned out Owatonna was the team to jump early getting disqualified and the JV Winhawks brought home their win. The Owatonna Huskies had the Varsity meet won; they too just had to swim clean. The Winona Winhawk team of Staats, Bawek, Brosnahan and Zuelke rose to the occasion and swam a season best 3:54.16. Owatonna swam clean for 2nd and the Winhawk relay of O’Neil, Peterson, Galewski and Quandahl earned 3rd place.

Final Score

Varsity Owatonna – 97 Winona 89

Junior Varsity Owatonna – 76 Winona - 89