This week in swimming

Today marked the first day of official practice for the Winona/Winona Cotter Boys Swimming & Diving season. Their first dual meet is Thursday December 16^th at Albert Lea. I will post more on the team and a preseason report later on.

This Saturday, the YMCA Winfins travel to Austin to compete against the Aqua Pack.

LOTS OF COLLEGE SWIMMING THIS WEEKEND.

St. Mary’s University will be competing at Hamline on Friday night and then at the Concordia Triangular with Concordia, and Hamline on Saturday.

The # 12 ranked University of Minnesota Men’s Swimming & Diving Team is traveling to compete in the Georgia Invitational. Other teams competing will be # 11 Virginia, #7 Auburn, Kansas, and fellow Big 10 member Penn State (ranked just outside the Top 25). It is a 3 day meet (Fri – Sun with morning and evening sessions. I will try to report on progress. Considering the teams that are entered, it should be a great test of where the Gophers are at in their conditioning.

The # 14 ranked University of Minnesota Women’s Swimming & Divng Team is training until after the Christmas holiday. Although some of the women’s team members will be in Ohio this weekend competing in the USA Swimming 2010 AT&T SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Gophers Ashley Steenvoorden (competing in the 500 Free, 200 Free, 1650 Free, and 500 Free, Megan Braun (50 Free, 100 Fly, and 200 Fly) and Jillian Tyler (100 Breast, 200 Breast) will be there.

With the Gophers out of town UW River Falls will host the  Falcon Invitational at the U of MN Aquatic Center. Mankato, St. Cloud, Eau Claire, La Crosse, and a host of other squads will be in attendance.

The Iowa Invite will be this weekend in Iowa City. The University of Iowa will host Denver, Notre Dame, South Dakota State, Green Bay, and Milwaukee. Ohio State will be competing in diving only. The meet is a morning prelims evening finals format.

St. Thomas will be hosting the St. Thomas Invite in St. Paul on Saturday and Sunday.

UW Whitewater and UW Stevens Point will be at the Wheaton Invite.

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Also swimming in this weekend’s USA Swimming 2010 AT&T SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS from Minnesota this weekend will be Rachel Bootsma just off her National HS Record performance at the MN State HS Championships. She is swimming for her Aquajets squad in the 200IM, 50 Free, 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Free, and 200 Fly.  Adding some drama to the meet she will be competing in the 100 Back directly against Cindy Tran, the California swimmer that she took the National Title away from. Several additional swimmers from MN will be in attendance from the Edina, Minnetonka, and Foxjet squads. Many other names will be in attendance like Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers, Nathan Adrian, Julia Smit, Elaine Breeden, Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, and many others.