Winhawks entertain the Owatonna Huskies on Thursday

The 4-2 Owatonna Huskies come to town on Thursday to put the 2-2 Winona Winhawks to the test.


The Owatonna Huskies are competitive this year. They had a relay and a senior in two events at last year’s State Meet, they appear to be looking to try to improve on that. It should be another great dual meet. The Big 9 is shaping up to have quite a bit of parity. First, the Winhawks have squeakers with Faribault and Rochester Mayo, now Owatonna.

Look for the 200 Medley Relay to set the tone. The OHS Relay of Cole Martinez, Kellen Glynn, Matt Partridge, and Michael Crabtree will give the Winhawk relay of Sr. Captain Ryan Whalen, Sr. Santino LaPorta, 8th Gr. Roger Brosnahan and Jr. Louie LaPorta everything they can handle but look for a Winhawk win.

The 200 Freestyle will feature OHS’s Matt Partridge pushing Winhawk Sr. Josh Danzinger with Winhawk So. Joey Kleinow fitting in behind them to scoring high.

The 200IM will most likely see OHS’s Kellen Glynn win the IM unless the Winhawks throw Sr. Ryan Whalen at him which would be a great race. To do that, the Winhawk coaches would have to put some extra weight on 8th Gr. Roger Brosnahan’s shoulders in the 50 Free.

The 50 Free will likely pit OHS’s Michael Crabtree against Winhawk 8th Gr. Roger Brosnahan, Jr. Louie LaPorta and possibly Ryan Whalen.


Diving will be a great contest to watch, Winhawk Jr. Justin Bublitz should bring home the 6 points for 1st place. Look for Winhawk Jr. Stan Petkov, getting geared up for Big 9 & Sections, to pull out 2nd place points just barely beating our OHS’s D.J. Lund and Zack Dantzman. Look for Winhawk So. Dan Karnick to slip in there for some points as well.

The 100 Butterfly would be a great race if both OHS’s Kellen Glynn and Winona’s Roger Brosnahan go head to head.

The 100 Free will be a Crabtree and Whalen battle again and will be a good push for Whalen as he prepares for another run at a State title.

The 500 Freestyle will be another race for OHS to push Winona. Matt Partridge swims a 5:30 and Winhawk Sr. Josh Danzinger will have to swim a season best to upend him.

The 200 Free Relay will also be close. The Seed time for OHS’s Brandon Hager, Nathan Hager, Martinez, Crabtree is around a half second faster than the Winhawks’ Louie LaPorta, Jonathon Birdsall, Ryan Whalen and, Roger Brosnahan.

The 100 Back has OHS’s Cole Martinez will be a handful for any of the Winhawks. Look for Jr. Louie LaPorta and So. Avery Prondzinski to try to pull off the upset. If they have saved him until now, Sr. Ryan Whalen will win it going away.

The 100 Breaststroke will again be one of the hard fought races of the night. OHS’s Kellen Glynn should be nose to nose with the Winhawks’ Sr. Santino LaPorta and 8th Gr. Cal Dretske the entire 100 yards!

The 400 Free Relay looks to be OHS’s. With a squad of over 35, they have too much strength left and the Winhawks will be hard pressed to put together a relay to match them with the swimmers still eligible.

Next up, Onalaska Holmen on Monday the 1st of February.