Winona swimmers and divers continue their assault on personal best times/scores

The Big 9 Championships are over, the Winona Swimming & Diving Team placed 8^th of the 10 teams, finishing in front of Austin & Albert Lea. The Winhawk team had an uphill swim this year with many new swimmers and veterans shuffling around filling gaps. Big 9 saw MANY quality swims and the Winhawks can be very proud of their accomplishments!

Congratulations to Big 9 All Conference performers Senior Co-Captain Diver Justin Bublitz, Cotter Junior Diver Dan Karnick and Freshman Breaststroker & IM’er Cal Dretske. The selection criterion for a diver is a top five finish. For swimmers the top 35 point earners for the swim meet.  Justin finished 3^rd in Diving and Dan was 5^th in diving.  Cal swam on the medley relay team placing 6^th, placed 11^th in the 200 IM and 5^th in the 100 breaststroke.

The Winhawk Big 9 performances included:

The 200 Medley Relay of Junior Avery Prondzinski, Cal Dretske, Kyle Schneider, Louie La Porta placed 6^th swimming just a few tenths off their season low. Personal best splits were attained by: Cal Dretske, Conor Kosidowski, and Kory McDonald!

The 200 Freestyle saw Cotter Freshman Hodd Gorman, Junior Joey Kleinow, Sr. Danjeer Presson ALL swim personal best times and Sophomore Jake Johnson was just a hair off his personal best.

The 200 IM saw Freshman Cal Dretske swim set a best time for the third meet in a row. Following him were great performances by Cotter 8^th Grader Kyle Schneider, 8^th Grader Alex Vaslow and Cotter Freshman Aaron Whyte.

The 50 Freestyle saw a new personal best by Junior Avery Prondzinski.

Diving saw Cotter Junior Dan Karnick set a new personal best score in taking 5^th place behind his Sr. Co-Captain Justin Bublitz who cam e in 3^rd.

The 100 Butterfly was Cotter 8^th Grader Kyle Schneider’s turn, setting a new personal best, the 7^th time this season he has bettered himself. Follow his lead, Junior Alex Kline set a new personal best by a second and a half, and dropping a total of 10 seconds off the his first 100 Fly early in the season.

The 100 Freestyle had Sr. Co-Captain Louie LaPorta finishing 10^th and Junior Joey Kleinow setting a best time for a second time that day. Finally Junior Kory McDonald also set a personal best time flirting with an induction into the Minute Man Club!

The 500 Freestyle saw, you guessed it, Cotter Freshman Hodd Gorman setting yet another personal best. His second best time of the meet and the eighth time this season he has bettered a previous 500 time. Joining him in setting a personal best time, Sophomore Mic Borsari shaved 30 seconds off his previous low.  

The 200 Freestyle Relay saw personal best splits by, Conor Kosidowski, Erick Barraza, Kory McDonald and Hodd Gorman.

The 100 Backstroke saw some of the best drops in a 100 yard event. Cotter Freshman Aaron Whyte, after setting a new personal best in the final dual meet, shaved another 3 full seconds off at Big 9. Right beside him, Senior Co-Captain Gio Borsari bettered that with over a 5 ½ second drop to set his new personal best!

The 100 Breaststroke saw 3 Winhawks go lower. Freshman Cal Dretske placed 5^th in the event while going lower than he ever had for yet another personal best time. Following his lead, both Juniors Jake Johnson and Conor Kosidowski set new personal best times.

 Wrapping up the meet, the 400 Freestyle Relay, a “last man standing” type of event for the Winhawks all season had its high point stoo. Sr. Co-Captain Gio Borsari swam his fastest split of the season by 5 seconds and Junior Kory McDonald, after just missing it earlier in the meet, joins the Minute Man Club swimming a personal best split 59.39, congrats Kory!

Next up for the Winhawks, Section1AA Preliminaries at the Rochester Rec Center, Thursday Feb 24^th at 3:30PM.