Swimmers, like fine wine, get better with age. But when they are great to begin with, that is something to experience.

The Winona Winhawk Girls Swimmers & Divers travel to Mankato to take on the maturing Mankato West Scarlets. 

Mankato West Swimming & Diving competes in the Big 9 Conference but is a Class A school for Sections and State. So the last meeting involving these two was the 2010 Big 9 Conference Meet. In that Championship meet, the Winhawks had a little more depth and finished in 3^rd and the Scarlets finished 4^th a little ways behind them. Earlier last season, the Winhawks were victorious in a close dual meet winning 96-90.

This year the Winhawks will need to have some swimmers step up to repeat those results. It appears Senior attrition may have hurt the Winhawks more than the Scarlets. 

The Scarlets sent 3 relays and two individual entries to the Class A State meet last year placing 9^th overall. Their 200 and 400 Free Relays will be returning 3 of the 4 competitors from their State entries. If that is not formidable enough, the two individual entries were by the same Scarlet swimmer, Standout Freshman now Sophomore Danielle Nack. Nack finished State in 2^nd place in both the 200 Freestyle and the 500 Freestyle swimming times that make you do a double take at the scoreboard. 

The standout Sophomore is not the only threat the Scarlets possess, starting with Nack’s sister Chantal, a Freshman following in her sister’s wake swimming a 2:04 200 Free and 5:30+ 500 Freestyle. Juniors Samantha Fitzpatrick (1:18 100 Breast) and Nicole Lohman ( 0.25 50 Free and 0.56 100 Free times) will have a definite impact. When you add in Freshman Madison Bacon’s 2:20 200 IM and 1:05 100 Back you have a youthful squad that packs a punch.

Winhawk Coach Steve Burt is still formulating his line-up and learning how the girls developed over the summer. It is hard to predict who will be swimming what, but that is one of the fun parts of high school swimming. It is not about times as much as it is scoring points, so coaches shuffle swimmers looking to score points where they can be found and not give up points by using good swims against better swims.

This will be a great meet and the Scarlets may just avenge their losses of last year. Then again, the Winhawks will definitely have something to say about that and may just prove that depth out scores flash!

Winona Winhawks swim past the Menomonie?? (fill in blank)

Menomonie is in the process of selecting a new team name/mascot and just may have been distracted as the Winhawks pretty much had their way with them. Word went through the stands that there were already some injury issues with the soon not to be Indians and their numbers were a little decimated. Not sure if Coach Burt knew that, but he did some real switch-a-roos with the kids and their typical events to see what they could do. Based on the resultant final score, it did not seem to have a downside effect. 

The meet led off with the Winhawks swimming a 200 Medley Relay under 2 minutes. In fact the team of Cotter Junior Mackenzie Brosnahan (Back) Sophomore Reese Galewski (Fly) Junior Alexandra Zuelke (Breast) and Haley O’Neil (Free) swam a time in this first meet that they didn’t hit last year until 2/3rds of the way through the season!

Winhawks           10           Menomonie        4

The 200 Free, historically a thin bench for the Winhawks sees them go 1-2-3 with Reese Galewski leading the way for the win with Sophomore McKenna Marg right behind her and Sophomore Greer Kosidowski digs her way home for 3rd place to complete the sweep.

Winhawks           23           Menomonie        7

The 200 IM saw MacKenzie Brosnahan handle the best Menomonie could throw at her, winning with 5 seconds to spare in a time that took her most of the season to achieve last year. Sophomore Razil Campbell Scores additional points in 4^th.

Winhawks           31           Menomonie        15

The 50 Freestyle featured Junior Alexandra Zuelke who as a Winhawk had not swam this event in 2 years. She won convincingly with Junior Haley O’Neil and Sophomore Emily Thurow taking 3^rd & 4^th respectively.  

Winhawks           42           Menomonie        20

Diving – YES we got to watch diving and the Winhawks did not disappoint. Junior Crystal Franswa dominated the event easily placing 1^st with Winhawk Sophomore Janelle Mueller making an easy go of 2^nd place as well. Only Six points separated the remaining 3 divers and Freshman Sarah Scherbring brought home the 5^th place points to help distance the Winhawks further into the lead.

Winhawks           53           Menomonie        25

The 100 Fly featured some new Varsity swimmers with Freshman Hannah O’Neil placing 2^nd overall, Junior Samantha Johnson scored 4^th and Junior Ashlen Haines scored for 5^th place. 

Winona                60           Menomonie        34

The 100 Freestyle saw Haley O’Neil win a hotly contested race that spurred her on to swim within a second of her season best last year. 

Winona                69           Menomonie        41

The 500 Freestyle was another event resurrection, this time it was McKenna Marg swimming when she hadn’t competed in it since 2009. It was a tight tight race and McKenna gets touched out by a body length but takes second bettering her best time by over 20 seconds. Sophomore Greer Kosidowski takes 3^rd in what looks to be her debut 500 Free for the Winhawks and Freshman McKenzie Porter swims to a 4^th place finish. 

Winona                78           Menomonie        48

The 200 Freestyle Relay proved to be the finishing blow for the Winhawks as the 3 relay entries for Winona go 1-2-3. They can only score points for 1^st & 2^nd but it puts a lot of distance between them and Menomonie. The winning relay in this opening season meet swims one 1/100^th faster than any dual meet time from all of last year. 

Winona                90           Menomonie        50

The 100 Backstroke puts the icing on the cake as Mackenzie Brosnahan wins her 4^th event of the evening as an individual or relay. She separated herself from the pack early and swam along to the win. Sophomore Abbey Quandahl swims a great debut 100 back touching out the competitor next to her to take 2^nd place. 

Winona                100        Menomonie        54

From here on to the finish, Winona competed in their events but declared their swims as exhibitions to stop scoring points. The win was in the bag and there was no need to extend it any further. 

The 100 Breaststroke saw Jr. Alexandra Zuelke dominate while swimming a time better than any dual meet last year. She takes the win with Emily Thurow in 4^th and Cotter 8^th Grader Alexandra Arnold taking 5^th.

 Winona 100                      Menomonie        67

The 400 Freestyle was a fun event with the meet in the bag. The two Winhawk relays place 2^nd & 3^rd enjoying their successful start to the 2011 season!

Finals

JV           Winona 112        Menomonie        9

Varsity     Winona 100        Menomonie        75

Book your trip to Omaha NOW!

I was informed recently that Winona’s own Matt Papenfuss has qualified for the Olympic Trials even before the start of his Senior Season at the University of MN. 

Swimming with the MN Aquatics Team at the 2011 USA Nationals, Matt swam a 1:52.83 200 Meter lead-off in the 4x200M Freestyle Relay. 

That swim, being a lead-off can be used as a qualifier and was under the Olympic Trials Standard of 1:52.89. 

Matt will be swimming his Senior year with the U of MN Golden Gophers this winter an looking to better that seed, but already having the Olympic Trials qualification under your belt is a heck of a way to start the season.

It is time!

As I heard in a movie once, "it is time" was used to set out on a mission.

On Tuesday the Winona Winhawk Girls’ Swim Team opens its 2011 season traveling to perennial season opening Menomonie to take on the soon not to be Indians. Menomonie is at the end of a selection process to choose a new mascot with final voting taking place as you read this. 

The Menomonie High girls’ swim and dive team completed its 2010 season at the WIAA Division I sectional meet in Hudson, placing ninth of 14 teams. They only graduated two seniors, a diver and their star 200/500 freestyler so they will return a good deal of the talent they showed last season. 

Their 200 Medley (Sara Kralewski, Elaine Kraft, Laura Maki, and Kayla Edgeberg) remains intact this year with 3 of 4 swimmers returning on their 200 and 400 Free Relays (Sara Kralewski, Edgeberg, Brenna Utphall).

Menomonie’s Elaine Kraft is a swimmer to look for in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard breaststroke.

Other of note include: Lisa Faulhaber (200 free and 100 Backstroke), Tiffany Kostuch (200 IM and 500 free), Destinee Yang (100 butterfly), and Jacky Miller (100 breaststroke).

The Winhawks have been working hard doing two-a-days for two weeks now. Running the lake, abs and weight work in the morning and swimming hard in the afternoon. Thursday the girls got a taste of mock competition running 50 yard time trials in all the strokes to the starting system and scoreboard readout. They went through all the rules on legal suits, deck decorum, the no jewelry rule, and race start protocol. 

The Winhawks themselves are a young team with only 3 seniors splashing the lanes, Senior Co-Captains Kayla and Samantha Berg along with perennial standout Mackenzie Brosnahan. Coaches Steve Burt and Amy Schulz will be looking for additional leadership from rising stars Alex Zuelke, Haley O’Neil and Reese Galewski who all swam hard for the Winona Wizards this summer. 

Swimmers to keep an eye out for include, Sophomores Greer Kosidowski, Abbey Quandahl, McKenna Marg, and Raizl Campbell; Freshman McKenzie Porter, and 8^th graders Hanna O’Neil and Morgan Whyte. 

Don’t forget, this is an away meet so we all know what that means, WE GET TO WATCH DIVING. Winona returns the diving core from Sections last year with all-around athlete Junior Crystal Franswa leading Sophomore Janelle Mueller and Freshman Sara Scherbring to dominate the boards. 

The girls look ready and raring to go; it should be a good meet to kick off a fun season!

Next up, Thursday Sept 1^st at Mankato West. Parents thinking about the trip should talk to coach about a bigger (more comfortable) bus or maybe some carpooling.

First Day of Practice

The first day of HS practice. The ceremonial Huff -n-Back run in the morning. The Afternoon swim. Although this time in the Middle School as the HS pool is not yet adjusted for chlorine level. 

I was reflecting on what a great sport swimming & diving is, how it is one of the few sports left that is still pure in its intent. As an official, I take great pride in the fact that my rule book does not allow negative expression. Not toward your fellow competitor, not toward yourself. It is always you against the clock, or you performing the dive. If you put in the work, tried your best, your outcome is yours and yours alone. If it was good enough to outperform the person in the next lane or next in the diving order, rejoice. If your tiem was slower, your score was lower, show them the respect they earned putting in their work. 

If you put down yourself or your competition, not only have you embarrassed yourself, you've violated the rule book and are subject to DQ or ejection. 

Swimming & Diving  does not allow trash talking, not does it condone negativity. It is part of what makes the sport great!

In that thought, I will leave you with this to think about for the upcoming season. Whether you win, or they win, everyone should get the accolades they deserve. 

http://www.godvine.com/Injury-Turns-into-Inspiration-for-One-High-School-Girl-323.html 

And so we begin anew

It's been in the back of my mind. You need to wind up the blog again, I should never have left it last April, but other responsibilities called and the HS season was over. No one will be reading I thought. 

The a friend mentioned to me tonight, "hey Craig, I went to the blog and there wasn't anything there yet. So I go and look and lo and behold, he was not alone. There have been numerous visits as of late, reading archives and looking for a new post.

So here goes:

The Winona SHS Girls' Swimming & Diving Season kicks off "Officially" Monday.

Unofficially, the girls have been meeting this week with each other doing some team building. Next Monday AM they are allowed to meet with their coach and start workouts. Some teams take it to the max and meet at 12:01AM to kick off their season. 

As for HEad Coach Steve Burt and Asst Coaches Amy Schulz and JJ Jackson, they have the girls dive right in with two a days for two weeks, and then lead their season out with an away meet against Menomonie Wisconsin on Aug 30. 

We all know what away meets mean. All together now, “WE GET TO WATCH DIVING!” 

More as we get closer to the season on the schedule and the girls. But for now, let’s say we just ease into the saddle. More later.