The Winona Winhawks prepare to head out for the State Meet

Friday is Prelims Day at the 2010 Minnesota State Swimming & Diving Championships.

At the 2009 State Championships, the Winhawks qualified in three events, 50 Free, 100 Free and 100 Breastroke. Winona finished in 19th place on the strength of Ryan Whalen’s 2nd place finish in the 50 Freestyle and 5th place finish in the 100 Freestyle.

Here in 2010, the Winona Winhawks will be swimming in four different events, the 200 Medley Relay, the 50 Freestyle the 100 Freestyle and the 200 Freestyle Relay. The Winhawks have their work cut out for them. There are a number of returning champions and medalist swimmers at this year’s edition of the Big Swim and no shortage of them in the events the Winhawks are entered in.

In the 200 Medley Relay, Rosemount the Defending Champion is back with the fastest seed time of 1:36.61. In fact, seven of the eight medal winning teams from last year have returned. Those teams and their finish last year are: Minnetonka, runner-up; Edina, third; Wayzata, fourth; Brainerd, sixth; Cretin-Derham Hall of St. Paul, seventh; and Lakeville North, eighth. Friday night the Winhawks will be swimming in Lane 6. The Winona Winhawk 200 Medley Relay represented by Sr. Co-Captain Ryan Whalen on Backstroke, Sr. Santino LaPorta at Breaststroke, 8th Grader Roger Brosnahan in Butterfly and Jr. Louie LaPorta in Freestyle are seeded 11th of the 25 teams at 1:41.09. Four good quality swims with some additional drop and you may just see those four Winhawks crowding their way onto the Podium Saturday night!

The 50 Freestyle has defending champion Devon Meeks of Rosemount back AND he owns this year’s best qualifying time of 21.48. Winona Winhawks Sr. Co-Captain Ryan Whalen, who earned runner-up honors in 2009, is the only other returning medalist from last year and is seeded 3rd at 21.52 which gives him Lane 4 in the second heat. There are a total of 29 State qualifiers. Only 4 one hundredths of a second separate the first 3 seeds! In prelims they will be spread over the final three heats. If they stay that way into the Finals, it’ll make an unbelievable race even better!

The 100 Freestyle also sees the defending champion return with the fastest seed time. Drew Johnson of Edina is back with the best qualifying time of 46.31. He will square off against two other 2009 medal-winners: Winona Winhawks Sr. Co-Captain Ryan Whalen who placed 5th last year, is seeded seventh at 48.16 and swims in the third and final heat in Lane 3. That places him right next to top seeded Drew Johnson which will provide Ryan a great big target to aim for. The only other 2009 returning medalist is Max Hubbard of Rosemount, who finished 8th last year currently seeded fifth. A total of 23 swimmers qualified in the 100 Freestyle this year.

In the Winona Winhawks final appearance of the night, our 200 Freestyle Relay Team will be hitting the water looking to move up to make Championship Finals. They have their work cut out for them but they may be able to leapfrog some other State meet newcomers. Four 2009 medal-winning teams return to this year’s meet, led by defending champion Rosemount in the fourth seeded spot. The other returning teams, their place last year and current seeding are: Edina, runner-up & 1st Seed at1:26.76; Minnetonka, third & 3rd Seed; and Maple Grove, seventh & 5th seed. The Winhawk team of Junior Louie LaPorta, Senior Jonathan Birdsall, Senior Co-Captain Ryan Whalen and 8th Grader Roger Brosnahan are again seeded 10th at 1:30.07 and again swimming in Lane 6. There are a total of 21 entries that qualified at Sections. Again, if the boys are pumped up enough, they could leap their way to the Championship Finals and a podium visit on Saturday night.

This year’s state meet will start on Thursday, March 4, and run through Saturday, March 6. All events will take place at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The Class A one-meter diving preliminaries, the first five of eight dives for the state meet, will begin at noon on Thursday, followed by the Class AA diving preliminaries at 6:00 p.m. The Class A swimming preliminaries begin at noon on Friday, followed by the Class AA swimming preliminaries at 6 p.m. The Class A championship finals of all events begin at noon on Saturday, followed by the Class AA finals at 6 p.m.

Tickets will be available at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Prices are $5.00 for both students and adults for the diving preliminaries, and $8.00 for both students and adults for the swimming preliminaries and for the swimming and diving finals.