Excuse me, but are you busy Saturday afternoon?

The Winona Winhawks went into the Section 1AA Swimming & Diving Championship prelims knowing that they would be returning for the finals. There are only 8 teams in the swim meet, so barring disqualification, all relays return for Finals night. The question was who would be coming back for individual events?

Diving was a given, all 3 guys, Justin Bublitz, Stan Petkov and Dan Karnick would all be in the top 16, in fact, there were only 14 competitors so it was a lock. Justin currently sits 4th and is looking to ride that position all the way to the State Meet.

The Winhawks had a number of swimmers seeded in the range that would make a Saturday return likely. What was fun to watch is what some Winhawks did with those seeds.

Cotter Freshman Hodd Gorman had a great first Prelim swim converting his 200 Freestyle 15th seed into a Consolation Finals 9th seed by dropping nearly 6 seconds. Later in his 500 Freestyle, Hodd rode his 11th seed to its maximum. Showing everyone what a taper can really do, Hodd had the 3rd largest time drop of the event, 15. 25 seconds. Hodd gets to swim in the Championship Final Saturday as the 8th seed.

Junior Joey Kleinow was seeded 19th entering the 200 Freestyle and was going to need a quality swim to get an opportunity to swim on Saturday. Joey did just that dropping nearly 6 seconds off his seed and now owns the 13th Seed in Saturday’s Consolation Final.

Freshman Cal Dretske also had a great Prelims day for the Winhawks. His 16th seed in the 200 IM meant a good likelihood of a return trip on Saturday. Cal cemented that plan with a nearly 8 second drop and is seeded 13th for Saturday. With that confidence builder behind him, Cal came to the 100 Breaststroke. Cal already owned the 7th seed for the prelims but expectations were high. While 9 of the top 10 seeds dropped time in their prelim swims, no one dropped as much as Cal. Cal’s split in his second 50 yards (50yards to the finish) was the fastest of ALL the contestants resulting in a nearly 5 second drop and the 2nd seed ( and possible State Meet trip) going into Saturdays Final.

Sr. Co-Captain Louie LaPorta gets an extra swim Saturday. In spite of his half second drop, his 14th seed entering Prelims stood and he stands seeded 14th in the 50 Freestyle Consolation Final.

Cotter Freshman Kyle Schneider will be swimming the 100 Butterfly Saturday seeded 15th.

In the largest Winhawk leap of the meet, Junior Avery Prondzinski slipped into the water for the start of his 100 Backstroke prelim seeded 13th. After swimming the 4th fastest 50 split, Avery holds on to cut over 3 seconds off of his seed and is now swimming in the Championship Final Saturday as the 5th seed.

There were a number of other personal bests that I will write about in the meet wrap up!