Back at the Rochester Rec Center this year, the Winona Winhawks were looking to move themselves up the respect meter. Their 5th place finish last year was somewhat predictable, having fallen prey to the usual Rochester JM & Century teams, Faribault and Owatonna in the dual meet season. As the saying goes, this was a whole new season.
The Winhawks have a couple more seniors this year, but are more experienced in general. Aside from the trip up at Austin, the season went very well. Taking a 7-3 record into the Big 9 Conference Meet equates to a ton of possibility for the meet.
The 200 Medley Relay was the first indicator that 2010 was going to be a whole different meet. Last year’s seeding was the 8th spot and the Winhawks were happy to maintain it. This year the Winhawks found themselves both expecting and wanting more from the first event. The Winhawk B Relay set the tone. They were seeded 3rd of the non-scoring relays. Led out by the unbelievably calm looking Cotter 7th Grade Backstroker Morgan Whyte, the Winhawks stayed right with Century & Faribault. Senior Taylor Johnson took to the water next and her breaststroke established a lead for the Winhawks. Bluffview 7th Grader Hanna O’Neill left off the blocks swimming a fly leg that looked like a girl well beyond her years. By the time Cotter Freshman Emily Thurow began her freestyle leg the relay was in command. The Winhawk B Relay moves up to win the non-scoring relays. The Winhawk A Relay of Senior Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl, Cotter Junior Alexandra Zuelke, Freshman Reese Galewski and Junior Lalita Charungchainanon were up next, seeded 4th. They race is close and Winona ends up just as it was seeded with 4th place. More importantly, the girls dropped a 1 ½ seconds off their previous best and took their place as the 2nd fastest Winhawk Medley relay of all time! Yes, this was going to be an entirely different meet.
The 200 Freestyle is still a work in progress for the Winhawks. Head Coach Steve Burt has his eyes set on the future for this race. It was the only race where he didn’t use all four of his entry slots and he had youth entered to have them start to forge their future turf. First up in the 2nd heat was Cotter Freshman McKenna Marg. McKenna improves on her seed time by almost 5 seconds, swimming a personal best and moving up seven spots in the standings. Cotter 7th Grader Morgan Whyte finishes right behind her in 21st showing she will be a force to recon with in the future. Lastly Winhawk Freshman Haley O’Neill improves from her 12 seed to take 10th place. The second that she dropped earned her a place on the all time fastest Winhawks list at # 12!
The 200 IM was a point void while Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke was healing up. Now that she is back the Winhawks have swimmers in each heat of the 200IM. Notable swims included Cotter 7th Grader Alexandra Arnold dropping 3 ½ seconds off her seed to move up 6 places. Freshman Reese Galewski dropped nearly 4 seconds to move up 3 spots to earn points and Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke still getting into form trimmed 2 ½ seconds to move from 14th seed to 10th place in the meet and also claimed herself the 10th fastest Winhawk IM swim ever!
The 50 Freestyle has long been a Winhawk event. This year was no exception. The Winhawk fans had to wait through the first two heats to even see their first Winhawk swim. Winhawk Sr. Taylor Johnson won her heat handily and the 1 second drop from her seed moves her up to 14th overall. Next up was the Winhawks’ Foreign Exchange student Junior Lalita Charungchainanon. It was fun listening to Announcer Tim Firstbrook introduce Lalita, as not only did he pronounce it correct, he did it with a lot of style. That smile I saw her crack may have indicated she was ready to do something special in honor of hearing her name announced right. Leaving the blocks out in Lane 1 she came from nowhere swimming a new personal best on the season, leapfrogged from the 15th seed to take a tie for 9th overall. The Final heat saw both Sr., Co-Captain Bridget Bawek seeded 7th in Lane 1 and Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan seeded 2nd step up onto the blocks. It was a quick up and back with all the swimmers separated by only a few feet. When the water settled Bridget has swum her fastest 50 of the year and moved up to 6th. MacKenzie saw a 3 tenths drop and took home a solid 2nd.
One Meter diving was a bit of a let down. With Sophomore Crystal Franzwa still out with her head injury, the rest of the Winhawk diving contingent seemed to struggle without their points leader. Only Freshman Janelle Mueller was able to advance and that went as far as the Semi-Finals.
The 100 Yard Butterfly was Winhawk Freshman Reese Galewski’s announcement to the Big 9 that she was serious business. Before that happened her three team mates laid the groundwork to communicate that Winona is not just known for freestylers. Winhawk Sr. Erin Bernardy led the way with a personal best time in the opening heat. Next, young Bluffview 7th Grader Hanna O’Neill excited the Winhawk fans bettering her seed time by 2 ½ seconds which is also a personal best swim and moving up 3 spots in the standings. Sr. Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl came next and she too bettered her seed to score more points. In the last heat Reese stepped up in Lane 6 as the fourth overall seed. On her right was last year’s Section 1AA Champion, two lanes over, the 3rd place finisher. She hit the water with a great start and moved right into 3rd place. Reese stayed with the leaders and pulled away from the others finishing in overall 3rd place, a new personal best time by 1 ½ seconds and claim to the 3rd fastest 100 Butterfly in Winhawk history.
The Winhawk Fans got a bit of a break in the 100 Freestyle. Not for a lack of entries to cheer for, just that they were all bunched in the final two Heats and represented 4 of the top 9 seeds. First off was Freshman Haley O’Neill, she drops a ½ a second to score 7 points. IN the final heat Sr. Co-Captain Bridget Bawek is in Lane 8, Junior Lalita Charungchainanon is in Lane 6 and Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan owns the top seed and Lane 4. Kenzie has a GREAT start and is over a half second ahead at the 50. Bridget is a tie for 4th. In finishing MacKenzie yields just a hare but wins handily by almost half a second. Lalita gains ground in the second 50 passing four people to finish 3rd and Bridget finishes 9th overall. The 52 points scored in just the 100 Free represent almost 20 percent of the Winhawk final team score!
The 500 Freestyle is also a work in progress for the Winhawks and one that needs more work. The 4 Winhawk seeds were in the First 3 heats of the race and were not a factor in the scoring.
The 200 Freestyle Relay saw the Winhawks, Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke, Sr., Co-Captain Bridget Bawek, Freshman Haley O’Neill and Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan standing behind Lane 4’s block with a target on their back. They had the fastest seed coming in and were defeated but once all season, by Rochester JM by 5 one hundredths. Leading off Alexandra delivers her teammates the lead. Bridget swims her fastest split of the season but relinquishes a hair of the lead back to JM. Haley too delivers her fastest split of the season and still they give up a little more ground. The anchors hit the water and it is a rematch of the Winhawk/JM dual meet race last month. MacKenzie and the same JM anchor head to head. MacKenzie refuses to have history repeat itself and makes up the 2 tenths of a second deficit to win. Mankato West and Century both have strong anchors and JM slides back to the 4th they were seeded in. The four girls also lay claim to the 4th fastest 200 Freestyle relay in Winhawk History.
The 100 Backstroke was another good example of the Winhawk future spread out in front of themselves. Distributed over heats 2-4 are two seventh graders and a Freshman, anchored by Sr. Co-Captain Sam Quandahl in the final 5th heat. Cotter 7th Grader Alexandra Arnold moves herself up from 31st seed to 25th place swimming her personal best. Cotter Freshman McKenna Marg drops a half second to swim her personal best for 18th place. Not to be outdone Cotter 7th Grader Morgan Whyte swims a personal best and scores points in 11th place. Swimming in the final heat Samantha swims her best race of the year to move up one from her seed and place 7th overall.
The 100 Breaststroke also sees the entries spread out through the heats. Winhawk Sr. Melanie Jones-McMillan swims her final Big 9 race. Although she professes to have a difficulty counting to 8 and wished she had a counter like the 500, improves on her seed time moving up 4 places in the standings. Sr. Taylor Johnson, who has no desire to count at all, scores points for 10th dropping nearly a second. Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke improves on her seed swimming her fastest time of the season and places 3rd overall.
The 400 Freestyle Relay was previewed at the True Team, is always hotly contested and served a second preview for Sections. The Winhawk A Relay of Lalita Charungchainanon., Bridget Bawek, Haley O’Neill, and MacKenzie Brosnahan enter seeded 2nd. In the first leg Lalita delivers her teammates a 2nd place spot by 3 tenths. Bridget goes hard and lengthens the position in her first 50 but slides back to keep things where they were at by the exchange. Haley lengthens the lead over Mankato West by a second. MacKenzie hits the water and has the talented Freshman from Mankato chasing her. MacKenzie yields 3 tenths in the first 50 and Danielle Nack ends up swimming an amazing 52.23 split to just touch out MacKenzie by 9 one hundredths. The Winhawks end up in 3rd place.
Final Scores
Rochester JM 434
Rochester Century 329
Winona 275
Mankato West 206
Faribault 205
Owatonna 189
Albert Lea 176
Austin 161
Rochester Mayo 145
Mankato East 79
The Big 9 Coaches reward Winhawk Head Coach Steve Burt with the Big 9 Coach of the Year Award!
Next up – Section 1AA Championships
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