Achievement is a learning process and it is worth its weight in gold

Winona’s sole swimming entry at the year’s MSHSL Swimming Championships will be watching from the bench during today’s Finals. Cal Dretske swam against a much older field and did well.


Cal earned his way to state at Sections by climbing his way from the 7th seeded swimmer to placing 2nd in prelims and then coming from behind to claim that same coveted position in the final. Based on his anticipated Sections Seed, Cal trained and tapered for the Section Meet. Dropping all the way to the 1:01 qualifying standard was a tall order. So placing 1st or 2nd was the primary plan, knowing that he would have to lay it all on the line to move that far up to earn the trip to state. Making that choice also means that you know you are putting your emphasis on Sections and if you do make it to State, you may not have anything left in your tank for the Big Show. The effects of a taper may not last for the full week in between the two events.

At the MN State Class AA Championships preliminaries, Cal was seeded last, one of two Freshman in the Preliminaries. 9 of the entries were Seniors, 10 were Juniors, just 3 were Sophomores leaving Cal and one other as the Freshman entries.


Cal swam a great race, almost identical to his Section performance. Against a much older crowd, it just wasn’t enough to make the cut to Finals night. He did hold his taper better than the other Freshman in the field. While Cam was just 56 hundredths off his Section time, the Freshman from Mounds View dropped nearly a second an a half.


So while he may be watching from the bench tonight, Cam takes away a plethora of knowledge. He knows more about how to prepare for a big meet. He knows that he can and should be in this crowd and level of competition. Most important, he knows with some additional work, he can come back and also be swimming on Saturday night at the 2012 Minnesota State High School Swimming & Diving State Championships.


Event 11 Boys 100 Yard Breaststroke


====================================================


57.45 AAA


58.57 AAC


          Name      Year  School            Seed          Prelims


====================================================


1 Max Cartwright 12 Edina             56.15             55.44 AAA
2 Jacob Stern 11 Rosemount          58.02            58.35 AAC
3 Austin Sarna 12 Minnetonka        1:00.47          58.86
4 Nathan France 12 Apple Valley     59.95           59.55
5 Kendall Dunn 11 Minnetonka        59.79             59.74
6 Ryan Thompson 11 Eastview       59.24            59.78
7 Calder Michienzi 12 Mpls South   1:00.17          59.90
8 Bradyn Watson 12 Brainerd        1:01.57           59.92
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Cody Erickson 11 Mounds View     1:01.47       1:00.31
10 Kirk Youngdahl 11 Maple Grove    1:01.02      1:00.69
11 Joe Kollodge 12 Bengals                 59.97       1:00.88
12 Andrew Grosbach 12 Roch Century 1:01.24    1:00.96
13 Matthew Wright 11 Prior Lake         1:00.46     1:01.03
14 Ben Albert 10 Burnsville                      59.97     1:01.12
15 Jake Tempesta 12 Lake No               1:00.24    1:01.13
16 Joseph Vecchi 11 East                      1:03.23    1:01.88
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 Mitch Lentz 11 Edina                         1:01.56    1:01.99
18 Eric Schuld 10 CreDer Hall                1:02.05     1:02.09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 David Zaske 12 Buffalo                     1:01.96     1:02.34
20 Cal Dretske 9 WINA                          1:03.35      1:03.91
21 Sasha Safonov 09 Mounds View       1:02.81      1:04.02