HS Section1AA Girls Swimming & Diving Prelims

Thursday the Winona Senior HS Girls Swimmers & Divers headed to the Rochester Rec Center for the prelims of the Section 1AA Championships.

Prelims are such an interesting event to watch. The girls are seeded based on their best swims of the season, a good deal of them from the recent Conference Championships, so the pecking order is pretty well set. The unknown factor is how each swimmer & diver will enter the competition. For Divers it is pretty straightforward, you dive your best. The only “mind game” aspect is if you save your best dives for Finals and plan on moving up further then or throw them early, build up a lead and challenge the field to come get you. For swimmers, there are a host of issues. Do I taper now, do I wait for State? Do I shave now or wait for Finals? Do I wear the racing suit, the competition suit or the Fast Skin? So much to consider……..

Considering this is going on with all the squads at Sections, it is a wait and see scenario regarding the Prelims results.

Overall, Winona came out about even I think. Some stellar swims were countered by other teams, some other stellar swims still did not make it into the Finals. The relays are purely a “swim safe and make it through to Finals” thought train.

The last factor to consider is the staggered seeding for prelims. To avoid the top seeds racing each other in prelims, the seeds are staggered. The top seed is in lane 4 of the final heat. The second fastest seed is in Lane 4 of the second to last heat and the 3^rd fastest seed is in Lane 4 of the 3^rd to the last heat. The 4^th fastest seed starts the progression over being placed in lane 5 of the last heat next to the top seed. The sequence continues like that, spreading the top 24 seeds throughout the last 3 heats.  It can make for some lopsided heats, it can make for some very competitive heats. It can make it tough for a swimmer to figure out where they sit until the end.

The 200 Medley Relay had the Winhawks seeded 4^th in Lane 5 of the First heat. The Team of Sr. Co-Captain Sam Quandahl, Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke, Freshman Reese Galewski and Junior Lalita Charungchainanon swam safe, were just above or below their usual splits and dropped a half a second finishing 5^th overall. Their 155.19 is now THE fastest Winhawk Medley Relay of ALL TIME. Faribault vaulted from 6^th seed to 1^st with a 5 + second drop from seed time. There were no DQs, all teams will swim in Saturday's Championship Final.

The 200 Freestyle was not a strong suit for the Winhawks all season and it was reflected here. All of the Winhawk contestants are Sophomore or younger. Cotter 7^th Grader Morgan Whyte came ready to swim shaving nearly 3 seconds off her seed time. Indicative of the evening, despite her smashing her personal best time she maintains her 19^th seed for a finish and doesn’t crack the Consolation Final. Freshman Haley O’Neil in spite of a nearly 1 second drop from her seed time for a new personal best and a move up to #11 fastest of all time, qualifies only 13th and is swimming in Saturday’s Consolation heat.

The 200 Individual Medley wrapped up just as it started. Senior Erin Bernardy had a swim to end all swims shaving nearly 8 seconds off her seed time but coming up just short of making Consolation Finals. Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke and Freshman Reese Galewski both finish the evening seeded where they started. Both are swimming in the consolation Heat Saturday seeded 9^th and 12^th respectively.Alexandra's swim moves her up to the 7th fastest Winhawk 200 IM ever.

The 50 Freestyle has been a plus for the Winhawks all season and Thursday was no different. All 4 entries made it through and will be swimming in the Finals Saturday night seeded almost as they were in Prelims. Senior Taylor Johnson seeded 13^th, is swimming Saturday in Consolation the 13^th seed. Jr. Lalita Charungchainanon was seeded 10th, and in spite of a 3 tenths drop, is swimming Saturday in Consolation seeded 10^th. Lalita does get to claim the 11th fastest Winhawk 50 Free also. Top performance honors go to Sr. Co-Captain Bridget Bawek. Swimming an all time personal best, she moved from 7^th seed up to 5^th in the Championship final. That also moves her up to #6 all time fastest Winhawk 50 Free. Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan, swimming rough ( no shave or suit change) maintains her seed and swims in the #2 spot in Saturday’s Championship Final.

Springboard Diving was held in the morning, the girls performing 8 of the 11 dives on their lists. The field started with 23 divers. After 5 dives the field was trimmed to 20 and sadly Sophomore Megan Seeley and 8^th Grader Sarah Scherbring miss the cut by only 2 and 4 points respectively. Freshman Janelle Mueller finds herself in 15^th place and Sophomore Crystal Franzwa is in 5^th place. The next 3 dives, a combination of 2 voluntary and one optional, leave little room for error. After the water smooths, Janelle misses the cut by only 2.5 points placing 17^th. Crystal, despite a failed dive by the 2^nd place prelim finisher, stays in 5^th place after 8 dives. She will return to finish the last 3 dives of her list in Saturday night’s Finals. She is currently in 5^th place with 226.50 points. She is 0.10 points out of 4^th and 0.70 points out of 3^rd. With the top 4 finishers going on to the State Meet, it will all come down to execution and who saved what dives for their final 3. With less than a point difference and nearly 100 points left to score, it could be anyone’s night to punch their ticket to the Big Show. It will be a great diving competition to watch.

The 100 Yard Butterfly saw some great time drops across the entire field. It was probably the most competitive race of the entire Prelims. Senior Erin Bernardy continued swimming out of her head smashing her all time best swim by almost 4 seconds.  Bluffview 7^th Grader Hannah O’Neil finished where she was seeded and  just missed the Consolation Final by 1.5 seconds. Freshman Reese Galewski slipped a bit from her 3^rd seed but still qualified for the Championship Final Saturday night. Senior Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl making the most of her last Section Prelim dropped nearly 3 seconds from her seed to qualify 7^th for Saturday’s Championship Final.

The 100 Freestyle has mirrored the 50 as both have been high points for the Winhawks this season. Again, all 4 entries advance to the Finals on Saturday. In the Consolation Final, Freshman Haley O’Neill will be swimming the 12 seed with Junior Lalita Charungchainanon swimming next to her the 10^th Seed. Once again, Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek digs deep and moves up from 10^th seed to tie for 7^th overall. Her 56.19 is another personal best time and moves her up the All Time Fastest Winhawk list to 9^th! She will be swimming in the Championship Final with Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan. MacKenzie is seeded 2^nd behind JM’s Taylor Emery who vaulted from 4^th seed up to #1.

The 500 Freestyle, a talent void for the Winhawks will see no one in the Finals Saturday. Worth noting were the excellent swims of Freshmen Emily Thurow and Razil Campbell. Swimming side-by-side in the first heat of the 500, they pushed each other hard and ended up shaving 8 and 12 seconds respectively smashing both of their personal bests!

The 200 Yard Freestyle Relay was another exercise in “let’s just get to Saturday. The Winhawks seeded 1^st finish just off their seed time to go into the Championship Final Saturday seeded 2^nd. 

The 100 Backstroke was a mixture of youth and experience. Cotter Freshman McKenna Marg finished 7 tenths out of the Consolation Final leaving big hopes for the future. Cotter 7^th Grader Morgan Whyte also announces her presence shaving off over a second and qualifying for Saturday’s Consolation Final in the 14^th slot. Lastly Senior Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl, putting her exclamation point on her last Section Meet drops over 3 seconds from her seed. Not only does she finish 7^th qualifying for the Championship Final, she does it setting a personal best time and moving up to the 3^rd fastest Winhawk backstroke of all time right behind the great Britta Benson! 

The 100 Breaststroke also turned out to be another event where the times changed but seeds stayed the same. First, Senior Melanie Jones-McMillan swimming in her last Section Meet, took her race out hard and shattered her seed time setting an all time personal best! Senior Taylor Johnson starting out seeded 11^th, shaves a half second and qualifies for the Consolation Final in 10^th position. Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke, seeded 4^th, manages to stay close to the top seed in her heat and ends up in the Championship Final seeded 4^th again. Seemed unfair as her 1:09.33 is a new personal best and moves her up to #2 on the All Time Fastest Winhawk list!

The 400 Freestyle Relay was again, all about not disqualifying. With 7 teams, everyone makes the Championship Final IF they swim clean in the Prelims. Winona Seeded 2^nd swims a half seconds off of their seed and goes into Saturday’s Championship seeded 3^rd. Rochester JM continued their hold on 1^st and Faribault was the team to leapfrog over the Winhawks to take 2^nd.

Saturday’s Championship Finals will be a great contest. There will be emotion, there will be drama, but most importantly, there will be fun and GREAT memories created.