The MN State Boy’s Swimming & Diving Championships are right around the corner.
Held at the awesome University of MN Aquatic Center Dorothy L. Sheppard Pool, it is a 50-meter competition pool, eight lanes wide and eight feet deep, with a movable bulkhead. The separate diving well features a pair of one-and three-meter boards, as well as 1, 5, 7.5 and 10-meter diving platforms. In addition to the 1,346 permanent seats, there is room for 1,200 temporary bleachers. In 2005, the Aquatic Center added a new state-of-the-art video display system completed at a cost of $250,000. Purchased and installed through Colorado Timing Systems, the 21-foot by 10-foot digital video display is the largest permanent video installation in an aquatic facility in the United States. Skylights run the length of the ceiling, reducing the need for electric lighting at daytime events. Fifty-four loudspeakers surrounding the pool give it “the best acoustics in the country,” according to aquatics director.
The session begins with the parade of schools. Participating swimmers march in along pool side, Section by Section, introduced over the PA system by school. Once lined up beginning behind the starting blocks and continuing around and down the sides of the competition pool, the national anthem is sung by a guest athlete.
Add to that a spectator area (that is packed year after year) with fans screaming for their team’s swimmers & divers and you have a heck of an atmosphere.
So you may have swum here before, but this ain’t no USA or Y meet. This is the Minnesota State High School Championships, 85 years in the making.
If you have been there before you want to go back. If you have been a spectator, you are dying to qualify when you get the chance.
This year the Winhawks send two participants.
Cal Dretske, a Freshman in his first year of high school swimming is no stranger to the U of MN Aquatic Center. As recently as two weeks ago, Cal was swimming and winning the 100 IM and 200 Breaststroke in the 18 & Under category at the 2011 YMCA State Championships in that same building. I am guessing that this meet might be a little different perspective for Cal.
Senior Co-Captain Justin Bublitz will be diving in the State Championships for his first time. Justin has been the bridesmaid a number of times. Unlike the swimmers that have a time standard backdoor to qualify, in diving you are either in the top 4 or you go home for the rest of the season. As recently as 2010, Justin knows what that 5th place feels like and qualifying this year was a major monkey off his back. Now he can go to Minneapolis and show what he can do to a great and enthusiastic crowd. Much like the pool area, the diving well atmosphere gets you adrenalin pumping. While you are only competing on the 1 meter board, being beside the 3 meter springboard, 1, 5, 7.5, and 10 Meter platforms give you a sense of having ascended to a higher level. A sense like that can give you wings and help you stick dives that have troubled you in the past.
Good luck to both Winhawks, enjoy your trip. Only select competitors get to, all that have want to return, and ALL, remember it forever.
For more info on the upcoming State Meet you can go to:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment