“Yes young lady, you have to go to JM and swim the Rockets”.

Much like trips to the dentist and cleaning their room, some things your kids (insert swimmers) prefer not to do but have to at some point.

Add to that going to Rochester and swimming the Rockets at John Marshall. Why, you ask? Well, for starters it is an old pool. It looks very similar to the old Cooke Hall Pool (circa 1934) at the University of Minnesota and possibly built shortly after the official length for pools changed from 20 to 25 yards (just kidding). The end of the pool beneath the starting blocks is a high flat wall. There is no gutter to affix the touchpads, as memory serves they use duct tape or something.  Swimmers tell stories of the water jets on the sides of the pool pushing the swimmers in lanes 1 & 6 toward the inner lanes lines with a fair amount of force. All though it has a sort of nostalgic, part of history feel to it at the same time.

With all that as backdrop, don't ever let anyone tell you facilities make the athlete. Because facilities aside, going to JM also means swimming against the Rockets and I don’t know where to begin there. Swimming against JM is one of those character building exercises, where you get to see just how good you are on that given night.

Last Year the Rockets placed third in the nation in the NISCA Power Point Rankings for schools with 900-1,400 students. JM won the Big Nine Conference championship for the second straight season, won the Section 1AA Title and tied for seventh at the Class AA state meet. The Rockets have challenged themselves with defending those regional titles this year and are looking to move up at State.  They have almost 25 swimmers returning from that squad and nearly 40 in all. Of those returning they have 10 all conference selections, 8 State meet participants, 3 All State selections and 3 All-Americans. They are comprised of eleven seniors, three juniors, six sophomores, twelve Freshman, and five 8^th Graders.

Head Coach Paul Bachman is in his 25^th year at JM, the last 11 years also coaching the Girls Swimming team.

JM currently sits atop the Big 9 standings tied with Century at 5-0 in dual meets, those two meet head-to-head in two weeks and both are building for it. John Marshall won the Lakeville Invitational two weekends ago which included Roch Century but two days ago took second behind Rochester Century at the Packer Invitational in Austin. I saw JM was missing from the top three results of the 400 Freestyle Relay so perhaps they were DQ’ed. Seems unlikely they would swim exhibition and concede the meet.

For the dual meet against the Winhawks, it is a tough meet to profile as the Rockets are so deep, it is hard to tell who will be swimming what.

The 200 Medley Relay has the Winhawks swimming 1:59’s since the loss of Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke. JM swam a 1:53 winning Saturday’s event swimming Co-Captain Claire Akasamit, Lauren Kalwasinski, Allison Schumacher, and Co-Captain Caitlin Fujan. 

The 200 Freestyle has Winona’s standout swimmer Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan at about 2:00 flat. Winhawk Freshman Haley O’Neill turned in a 2:07 against Mayo. Notables for JM are Risa Ricard 2:00.01 Allison Schumacher 2:01.75 and Claire Aksamit 2:02.33.

The 200 IM has been a work in progress for the Winhawks with 2:28 – 2:30’s. JM’s Senior Caitlin Fujan has posted 2:20.01 down to 2:13.32 and Sophomore Lauren Kalwasinski 2:20.28

The 50 Free has been a strong suit for the Winhawks. Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek, Senior Taylor Johnson and Junior Lalita Charungchainanon have been touching in 26’s to 27. JM’s Allison Schumacher is at 25.01, Risa Ricard at 26.36. It will be a fun race to watch and see how inspired the WInhawks are to make an impact where they can.

Winhawk diving has scored good points in recent weeks, Tuesday will be a real test for Winhawk Sophomore Diver Crystal Franzwa. JM’s Jennifer Anklan won on Saturday at the Austin Invite and posts in the 200’s ( 220.70 vs Austin) Crystal has posted a 207 this season so it will come down to who hits all their dives.

In the 100 Butterfly, Winhawk Sophomore Reese Galewski continues to impress swimming 1:02’s to 1:04’s. JM has seen Allison Schumacher post a 58.92 and Claire Aksamit a 1:01.91.

In the 500 Freestyle, the Winhawks’ Haley O’Neill seems to have earned the lead role, swimming an awesome 5:55 at Mayo Thursday. JM is deep in the 500. Rochester seems to crank out distance swimmers regularly and has Shannon Grill at 5:29.62 and Elise Guenther 5:31.11.

The 200 Freestyle relay has slowed of recent after posting a string of 1:46’s. LM set a pool record at Mayo earlier in the season with the team of Aksamit, Becker, Fujan, and Schumacher swimming 1:43.31. Saturday Fujan, Kalwasinski, Ricard, and Schumacher swam 1:42.64.

The 100 Backstroke has featured the Winhawks Brosnahan along with Quandahl and 7^th Grader Morgan Whyte swimming 1:06’s – 1:08’s. JM’s Lauren Kalwasinski has been posting 1:02.’s.

The 100 Breatstroke is similar, Winhawk Senior Taylor Johnson continues to improve swimming 1:15’s and Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek has filled in while Zuelke heals up. JM could put in the pool Freshman Anna Becker at 1:13.

The 400 Freestyle Relay will be hard to call as it always depends on who is left to swim. The Winhawks’ most recent fastest swim goes to Haley O., Samantha Q., MacKenzie B., and Reese G at 1:57. JM’s team of Schumacher, Aksamit, Fujan, and Ricard posted a 3:41.52 in early September and Schumacher, Aksamit, Emery, Ricard touching in 3:48 last week.

It will be a good meet to go watch and see some great swimming and coaching, along with the fact we will get to watch DIVING!

See you there!