Winhawks mirror their dual meet season at Big 9 Conference Meet.

The Winona Winhawk Girls’ Swimming Team went into the Big 9 meet having defeated, Rochester Mayo, Austin & Albert Lea, and fallen to Owatonna, Faribault, Rochester JM & Rochester Century. At the completion of the Big 9 Meet, the landscape looked similar, only now the Winhawks could add Mankato East & West to the defeated column. Winona finished 5th behind those same teams that caused them difficulty in the dual meet season. Of course Rochester JM beat up on everybody and the Faribault Falcons beat up on everyone but JM, so the Winhawks had their sights set on Owatonna, which was their closest dual meet of the season. The two teams finished 50 points apart in the end, which in Championship scoring isn’t much of a difference. Not knowing who was tapered and who will be swimming what events, the Section 1AA meet will be a great contest to watch.



The Winhawks came ready to swim and dive and appeared to have put trick or treating on the back burner and out of their minds. In spite of still working hard and only in the early throws of tapering, there were some excellent swims, some seasonal and individual bests and gusty performances.


The Diving prelims and semi-finals were held in the AM. Coach JJ had to get Crystal Franswa and Janelle Mueller up early to head to Albert Lea HS on their own. Warm-ups were at 9 and diving started at 10AM. There were 35 divers competing which made for a long warm-up and a lot of time to watch the others and contemplate. Being a championship meet, divers need to have an eleven dive list, 5 required dives and 6 optional dives. Winhawk 8th grader Janell Mueller looked a little nervous on her first dive, a Forward dive pike position, rushing it a little bit and caused the judges some issues on how to judge it. After that she settled down nicely. Her next three dives all scored 20+ points. She got good height on her Forward 1 1/2ss pike and a very pretty Back dive layout that scored her 3.5 up to 5’s. She ended up just missing the cut to semi-finals by a few points and will take some added experience into Sections. Winhawk 9th Grader Crystal Franswa was pretty consistent through out her competition. Her opening dive, a Front 1 ½ ss pike went for 4.5’s to 5.5’s and got her going well. Her final dive of the prelims, a Front 2ss in pike position scored only 3.0 – 4.5’s but the higher 2.2 degree of difficulty scored her 25.30 points and made a good transition into the semi-finals. She got a great lead-off in the Semi’s with a beautiful Back Dive layout that scored 4.5 to 6.0’s. Next she threw a newer dive for her, a Forward 1 ½ SS with 1 twist (I only recall one other diver trying it on Saturday). A little loose, the judges were widely dispersed in scores from 1.5 to 4.0, but that higher DD of 2.2 scored her 22 points, well worth the risk of throwing it. She finished the semi’s with a pretty Reverse Dive Layout scoring 4.0 – 5.5’s for a 183.95 subtotal and 11th place going into the Finals in the afternoon. Diving has an unpredictable element to it for the coaches and the divers, as to where you stand. Some divers save their best dives for last, so they know psychologically the best is yet to come. Others throw their “bread & butter” dives early to get high in the standings early and try to ride the wave into the finals to make sure they get there. So the divers themselves rarely know what is to come in the finals, only that they have to focus on what they are doing, and let the chips fall where they may. Crystal saved her “good stuff” for the Finals leading off with a Forward 1ss with 2 twists, a DD of 2.3 that netted her 28.60 points. She followed up with a beautiful Inward 1 ½ ss tuck that went for 5.5 – 6.5’s and 37.4 points. She wrapped up Finals with a Back 1ss with 2 ½ twists, DD of 2.7. The Degrees of Difficulty range from 1.0 – 3.1, so the DD of 2.7 is about as hard a dive as there is on 1 meter board. She scored 3.0 – 4.0 for the dive but that high DD got her 27.00 points. Her final 3 dives lifted her up two spots to finish 9th and a promising outlook for Sections!


On a personal note, I really wish there was a way we could get the diving boards back to the HS so swimming & diving competitions reunite. The competition is worth the effort it would take.


The swimming got underway at 2PM and it was an exciting atmosphere. After months of duals meets against each other and a partially attended Section True Team, they were all together at once. The stands were packed to overflowing with attendants urging everyone to squeeze closer and closer together. Everyone, teams and parents were ready for a good meet.


The 200Medley Relay hasn’t been a strong point for the Winhawks all season but they gave it their all. The “B” relay of JR. Erin Bernardy, FR. Grace Ell, 8th Gr. McKenna Marg and JR. Taylor Johnson couldn’t score points (only one relay is allowed in Champ meets, the other swims exhibition) but they swam a good 2:10.93 that moved them a few places higher in the standings. The “A” Relay of JR Samantha Quandahl, 8th Gr Reese Galewski, FR Alexandra Zuelke and SR. Co-Captain Aimee Peterson all had good swims and it was necessary. Obviously the electricity of the meet had everyone inspired. The Winhawks were in a dead heat all the way through both Samantha’s and Reese’s BK and FL legs, Alexandra swam her best split of the season to open up a lead and Aimee swam her best freestyle split in 6 weeks allowing the Winhawks to maintain their 8th place seed and 0.3 seconds out of 7th. The Rochester JM team shattered the pool record by just over 2 seconds. This was the first indication this would be a hard fought day in the pool.


The 200FR led off with 8th Gr. Gabby Kleinow digging deep and pulling ahead in the last 25 yards to win the first heat, bettering her seed time by nearly 3 seconds. Haley O’Neil swam a gutsy race. Seeded sixth in her heat, she took the lead at the 100 and held it through the 150 mark falling back to touch 2nd in a season best 2:11.23. SO Olivia Staats swam a 2:10.64 for 15th place overall. The winning swimmer from JM again shattered the pool record by 3.5 seconds, a common theme for the rest of the day.


The 200IM started out with a season’s best swim from JR Mallory Porter, cutting over 4 seconds off her seed time. Fr Alexandra Zuelke’s swim produced the first referee issue. Everyone on the deck and in the stands saw Alex touch 2nd in her heat but her time on the Daktronics system scoreboard showed differently. After Coach Burt protested, the Scorer’s table had to defer to the Officials’ order of finish and subsequently the back-up times to correctly log her finish as 2:26.13 in 9th place only 0.3 seconds out of the medals.


The 50FR was one of the high points of the meet for the Winhawks. Being such a “quick” event and without having tapered yet, JR Taylor Johnson and SR Aimee Peterson swam their seed times and finished in 20th and 13th place respectively. JR Bridget Bawek swam her best time of the season to move up and medal in 5th place. SO MacKenzie Brosnahan, being the awesome utility swimmer that she is, swam the 50 for only the second time this season but set a new personal best at 24.95 moving up to 5th fastest ever as a Winhawk and good for a Big 9 2nd place medal.


The 100BF Saw JR Erin Bernardy swim a personal best 1:16.77, bettering her seed time by over 3 seconds and moving up over 9 spots in the final standings. One of the team leaders, JR. Samantha Quandahl swam a season best 1:04.00 moving up from 10th seed into the medals at 7th place.


The 100FR saw SR Co-Captain Aimee Peterson, who has been busy swimming the 500FR all season, swim a season best 59.02 and JR Bridget Bawek swam her fastest time in almost 2 months to bot score poins for the Winhawks. SO MacKenzie Brosnahan swam her second fastest 100 of the season, at 55.38 to medal again in 3rd place.


The 500FR delivered one of the most exciting races of the day. It is an event of the future for the Winhawks. All season long some of the utility Winhawk swimmers like Aimee Peterson, Samantha Quandahl and MacKenzie Brosnahan have plugged in to swim when needed. Here at Big 9 they were needed to swim elsewhere leaving the underclasswomen to fend for themselves. Winhawk 7th grader McKenzie Porter, one of only a half dozen 7th graders to compete at Big 9, rose to the challenge. Coach Burt instructed her to go out with and STAY with the 9th grader in the lane next to her, telling her exactly what he wanted her to do to accomplish it. An interesting side factor to the equation was that even though the swimmer was from Austin, McKenzie and the swimmer had befriended each other last summer during a weeks stay at the YMCA’s Camp Olsen. Although there was earlier pre-meet discussion and catch-up, there was no such interaction as they waited behind the blocks. Both knew what their mission was, to beat the other. McKenzie was so jazzed up to get going that she nearly jumped and almost false started. The Referee stood the swimmers up and after remaining motionless on the second try, sent them. McKenzie stayed right with the older “fellow camper”, causing what appeared to be some panic on the Austin swimmer’s part and a push early on that McKenzie matched. At the midway point, lap 11, McKenzie pulled ahead putting another scare into the 9th grader from Austin and the two went head to head for the remainder. The Austin swimmer could not let the younger upstart show her up and dug deep to pull out a victory in the last 25 yards with McKenzie touching a few seconds back in 6:18.29. McKenzie moved up 6 spots from her seed to 25th place in the final standings, improving her personal best by almost 5 seconds and earning a LOT of respect.


The 200 Free Relay, unlike the Medley, has been a high point for the Winhawks this season winning every dual meet contest but one. JR. Bridget Bawek, 8th Gr Haley O’Neil, SR. Co-Caption Aimee Peterson and SO MacKenzie Brosnahan swam a season best 144.92 to touch 2nd in their heat and take 3rd overall. A driven Owatonna relay had won the previous heat with a 2 ½ second time drop that took 2nd overall setting up a BIG show down for Sections. This performance also moved these girls up one notch to being the 5th fastest in Winhawk history, a half second behind the team of Jenny Bentley, Olson, Sarah Daniels and Becky Sutton way back in 1990.


The 100BK was an event of surprises and acknowledging hard work for the Winhawks. The event saw the first heat containing Winhawk JR Erika Jonsrud who was swimming the event for the first time. You wouldn’t have guessed it by her performance, executing her turns like a veteran and winning the heat and ultimately moving up 6 spots in the standings from her seed time to 26th place! Winhawk SO Olivia Staats came next, winning her heat in a personal best 1:07.74 and also moving up four spots to finish 14th overall. The last Winhawk to cash in on her hard work was JR Samantha Quandahl who swam a personal best 1:06.55 dropping 6 spots to finish in 10th place overall.


The 100BR saw Winhawk JR Taylor Johnson continue to get better and better. She swam a personal best for the fourth time this year, touching in 1:15.68 good for 10th place overall. The final heat featured Winhawk FR Alexandra Zuelke seeded 5th and medaling in that same spot. She swam a 1:13.39 just off her season’s best implying good things to come at Sections.


The 400 Free Relay has also been a strong point for the Winhawks winning every dual meet contest but one as well. Seeded third in the final heat, the Winhawks team led by JR. Bridget Bawek, SO Olivia Staats, SO MacKenzie Brosnahan and FR Alexandra Zuelke (who swam her fastest FR relay split ever at 56.95) edged out Faribault to medal 2nd overall.

Winhawk Big 9 - All Conference Selections:

Junior Bridget Bawek
Junior Samantha Quandahl
Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan
Freshman Alexandra Zuelke


Honorable Mention Big 9:
Senior Co-Captain Aimee Peterson



Final Standings

1st      Rochester John Marshall        527 pts
2nd     Faribault                                  299 pts
3rd      Rochester Century                  265 pts
4th      Owatonna                                251 pts
5th     Winona                                     207 pts
6th     Rochester Mayo                       179 pts
7th tie Albert Lea & Austin               138 pts
9th      Mankato West                         128 pts
10th    Mankato East                            67 pts


A SPECIAL thanks to Jan Brosnahan for keeping all the swimmer and relay season statistics which make this blog so much more information filled on season performances.