Winhawks see payday over their Big 9/Section Foes.

Before I report on the Finals, I would like to emphasize that if you get the chance, bring your young swimmers to the Minnesota State Swim Meet! To watch their sport of choice, in this kind of an electric, inspiring atmosphere, is something to take advantage of. I go to referee, and I heard this from my fellow refs, to enjoy ref'ing in that environment of energy and excitement . Some of those officials been coming back for 25+ years, as volunteers, just so they can be on deck, sharing the energy, enthusiasim and atmosphere that these young athletes both create and feed off of.


2009 Minnesota State Girls' Swimmign & Diving Finals

They say he who laughs last, laughs best (well it may not be the most sportsmanship like thing to do). Does it also apply to the swimming season? The Winona Winhawks whisked themselves away from the Minnesota Girls Swimming & Diving Meet with what appeared to be a level of discontentment. Naturally heading off to the Big Swim holds all kinds of potential possibilities. The only prelim/final format of the entire season, each prelim swim carries the potential of coming back later to be announced in front of thousands of swimming fans. In swimming, as with all sports, there are lots of underlying dynamics at play. First and foremost, you gotta make sure you are going to the dance, so you get to dance. If you compete in a hotly contested Section, you need to manage your preparations accordingly. You taper for Sections or start your taper to incorporate Sections. Otherwise, you are sitting home come State time wondering what you could have done when your name was announced while you stand behind that block.

The Winhawks swam well at Conference. They took 5th place behind Roch JM, Faribault, Roch Century, and Owatonna. At Sections, they swam better, but took 6th behind those same five and Farmington. In that 6th place finish, they qualified two individual swims and two relays for the State Meet.


But at State, where everyone is watching, it's a whole new ballgame. While everyone is watching individual swims, teams are scoring points from those swimmers that can make it to the Finals. It was here, that the Winhawks got their chance to shine.


Final Standings:

7. Rochester John Marshall 126 (Tied with Maple Grove)
22. Winona/Winona Cotter 25
25. Rochester Century 24
26. Owatonna 18
27. Rochester Mayo 13
36. Faribault 5
36. Farmington 5


So Winona Winhawk Girls, while dreams of State Meet podium visits may not have come to be, you did yourself proud! You saw that the game has nine full innings and Sections was just the seventh inning stretch. Congratulations and take that feeling of leapfrogging your Conference / Sections foes where it counted. In front of the eyes of thousands of swim fans at the Minnesota State Class AA Girls’ Swimming & Diving Championships.

Recap:


In the Saturday Evening Finals, four of the five qualifying swims were coming back to score points. Winona Cotter Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan would swim her 11th seed in the 50 Freestyle first, followed later after diving, by her 11th seed in the 100 Freestyle.  The the 200 Freestyle relay consisting of Senior Co-Captain Aimee Peterson, Junior Bridget Bawek, Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan and Freshman Alexandra Zuelke would take their turn at adding points to the team total.


In the 50 Freestyle, Winhawk Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan was seeded 11th overall (3rd in the Consolation Heat) and swimming in Lane 3. To her Right, Mary Van Metre of Edina who had beaten MacKenzie in the 100 Freestyle way back in September at the Apple Valley Relays. On her left was Alison Schmacher of Rochester JM (a repeat of their 1-2 show down at the Sections Final where there was a 0.22 separation between them). So not only did MacKenzie know she was in for a battle, there was history and she knew her foes. The 50 is so fast there is not much separating winning from loosing. They went down the pool and back as one massive wave of white water. In the end, MacKenzie moved up to 10th place jumping over the swimmer from Minnetonka ( and that one point for the team was the difference in beating Roch Century in the Team Standings), and finishing an eyelash 0.01 seconds behind Schumacher. BTW, Mary Van Metre was a distant 0.15 back in 13th place and MacKenzie’s time in a timed final would have been good for a podium spot, she was quicker than two of the girls in the Championship Final! Congratulations MacKenzie.


                                                                 Prelim      Final
10 MacKenzie Brosnaha 10 Winona     24.46      24.39



Then came diving, which I have to comment on, was a great show of talent and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to watch the best divers from around the state compete against each other. One story I have to share, Defending State Champion Maggie Keefer of Stillwater won the state title again going away. The Senior diver, who is moving on to the U of M next year, won using 10+ dives, as she nearly failed a very difficult dive she really wanted to throw, netting practically no points. So in the end she finished 50 points ahead of everyone else in spite of spotting them one dive each. But that is not the amazing part. The amazing part is that 5 ½ months ago, working out at the U of M performing an Inward Dive on the 5 meter platform, she drove her forehead into the platform’s concrete ledge. After hospitalization and recovery, she still dove sporadically due to headaches and did not rejoin the team until midseason. I heard it from a trusted source and very few others in the diving community I talked to were aware of it having happened. An amazing story of perseverance and determination that was underplayed a great deal.


Back to swimming, Winhawk Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan once again stepped up to the blocks. This time she was there for the Consolation Heat of the 100 Freestyle. MacKenzie was seeded 11th overall (3rd in the Consolation Heat) and again, stood in front of the block in Lane 3. This time her Section foe Caitlin Fujan was to her left. (BTW Edina’s Mary Van Metre that beat MacKenzie back at the Apple Valley Relays, did not make it out of prelims). After a clean start MacKenzie was in still in 3rd through the 50 split, but lost ground in the second 50, and finished in 13th overall.
                                                                  Prelim      Final
13 MacKenzie Brosnaha 10 Winona      53.56       53.71
      25.69       28.02





Lastly, the Winona Winhawk 200 Freestyle Relay consisting of Senior Co-Captain Aimee Peterson, Junior Bridget Bawek, Sophomore MacKenzie Brosnahan and Freshman Alexandra Zuelke were up. They stood behind the Lane 5 starting block as the second seed in the Consolation Final Heat. To their right, the top seeded Woodbury team, to their left, their Conference/Sections foes from Owatonna. The 200 Free Relay is all about starts and turns. Each swimmer only does two lengths and is in the water for 24 or 25 seconds, so efficient turns and crisp exchanges make or break the race. It also means that the race can see some back and forth jockeying, as teams put faster swimmers early or late in their relay line up. Such was the case with this Consolation Final and in the end the Winhawks improved on their preliminaries swim by almost 0.5 seconds and held their ground with Owatonna and Woodbury flip-flopping their positions.


                                                   Prelim           Final
10 Winona/Winona Cotter      1:40.45         1:39.99

1) Alexandra Zuelke 9 2) Bridget Bawek 11

3) Aimee Peterson 12 4) MacKenzie Brosnahan 10

25.52     24.94      25.62        23.91


The Winhawks packed up their wet towels and headed home. Being quintessential swimmers, they were dreaming about the times they could have had and felt like they could have swam better.

But they need to be reminded that they pulled out a major victory here, and showed that the game isn’t over until it is over and all that is left is next year's season!

Great finish Winhawks, you did us proud.