2010 Girls' Section 1AA Swimming & Diving

The 2010 Section 1AA Swimming & Diving Championships are Thursday and Saturday.

It is a Prelim/Finals format, the only one of the season so far for many of the girls. The times the girls have swum all season determine where they are seeded for Thursday prelims. Divers must have a list of 11 dives spanning all of the required categories. On Thursday, a swimmer or diver must finish in the top 16 in order to move on to Saturday’s final.  For swimmers, there are two finals on Saturday; a consolation final made up of the 9th-16th fastest times and the championship final for the 1^st – 8^th fastest qualifiers. Once you are seeded in the Consolation heat, you cannot move up in results higher than 9^th regardless of the time you swim.

To qualify for the state meet:

• Finish 1^st or 2^nd in any individual swim or swim relay event or finish in the top four in diving and you go to state automatically. Means you cannot place your way to State in the Consolation Heat, you must swim the time standard. For Divers they have to place in one of the top 4 point totals.
• Achieve a state qualifying time. For this year they are:

2010-2011 Swimming Standards

               Girls                                                 

Class A            Class AA         

200 Medley Relay          1:56.48             1:52.99

200 Freestyle                2:01.47             1:57.50            

200 Individual Medley     2:18.87*            2:12.65            

50 Freestyle                     25.31                24.74            

100 Butterfly                 1:02.43             1:00.03               

100 Freestyle                   55.32                54.08                

500 Freestyle                5:31.10             5:15.17            

200 Freestyle Relay       1:43.52             1:41.64            

100 Backstroke             1:04.15             1:00.84                

100 Breaststroke           1:11.49*            1:09.29            

400 Freestyle Relay       3:47.92             3:41.59            

There is no diving qualifying point total standard. Top 4 places is all they get.

• Qualifying swims for the state meet occur only in Saturday’s Consolation Final or Championship Final races.  Swimming a state standard to get to the Saturday Championship finals is not considered.

The Section 1AA meet is smaller than Big 9 as Sections is based on school size. The two Mankato schools, Albert Lea, and Austin all compete in 1A. For Section 1AA Farmington gets added into the mix.

For those of you that were not at the 1AA True Team Meet, Farmington was there and in fact won the meet. They went on to place 11^th at the True Team State. Most recently they placed Second at the Missota Conference Championships behind 9-1 Northfield. 

The 200 Medley Relay may well be a repeat of the Big 9. Farmington may inject themselves in the top 6, but won’t be taking one of the State trips away from anyone.

In the True Team meet 200 Freestyle, Farmington owned 4 of the top 10 times, Rochester JM had 3 more. Adding Century into the mix now and I could see an all Rochester Final. Winona Freshman Haley O’Neill (didn’t swim the 200 at True Team) with a good taper and LZR suit could wedge herself in there as well.

The 200 IM will be JM and Farmington at the top as well. Look for Caitlin Fujan to make the most of her last Sections meet. Farmington’s Kaitlyn O'Reilly will look to prevent Lauren Kalwasinski making it a 1-2 for JM.

The 50 Freestyle will be a great rematch of Big 9 with Winona Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan looking to take the throne away from JM’s Allison Schumacher as SE Minnesota’s fastest swimmer.

In one meter diving will Winona diver Crystal Franzwa punch her first ticket to State? She was injured during Big 9, where the top 4 divers are Seniors and will be pumped up to make sure their last dive is a week later at the Big Show! Crystal has the DD (Degree of Difficulty) in her list to pull it off.

The 100 Butterfly will be a repeat of Big 9 as well. Look for Winona Freshman Reese Galewski to announce herself to Minnesota Swimming as someone to watch. She was 0.59 off the State qualifying time at Big 9.

The 100 Freestyle will again see Winona And JM toward the front. Who will lay their claim to the speed demon title, JM’s Caitlin Fujan or Winona’s MacKenzie Brosnahan? While that is going on, watch for Winona’s Lalita Charungchainanon right behind them making the most of her stay in the United States.

The 500 Freestyle could very possibly be an all Rochester final with 3 from JM, 2 from Century and one from Mayo. Not sure what they put in their cereal over there but they do crank out the distance swimmers.

The 200 Free Relay was Winona’s at Big 9 and may very well be theirs to win or loose at Sections. They were only off the State Qualifying time by 5 one hundredths at Big 9, but wouldn’t you rather go to State the Section 1AA Champions?

The 100 Backstroke will see Farmington’s 9th grader Kaitlyn O'Reilly back into the fray. She and 3 other Tigers made up 4 of the top 7 spots at True Team. Also Celia Hake of Faribault that was sat down for Big 9 should be back so this Final will be a tough nut to crack.

The 100 Breaststroke will also see a Farmington presence. Sr. Tiger Elizabeth Wolfe will look to inject herself into the field to make a very competitive Final. Winona’s Alexandra Zuelke was getting stronger and stronger since her return from injury and may just vault herself into a position to head to the Big Show.

The 400 Freestyle Relay may be another great chance for Winona to take a group to State. Their 3^rd place finish at Big 9 left room for improvement.

It will be a great meet with plenty of drama played out. Come on out and watch the fun!