Oooooops Sorry I was mistaken

The Winona vs Albert Lea meet on Jan 26 is at Albert Lea, not Winona.

“Gotta get that win.” “But, dual meet scores don’t mean nuttin’ at the end of the season.” “Gotta get that win.” “Dual meet season is about getting stronger.” “Gotta get that win.” “Dual meet season is about getting race experience.” “Gotta get that win.” “Yeah you’re right, gotta get that win!”

Thursday night the Winona Winhawks (0-5-0), (0-5-0) swim a dual meet against the Albert Lea Tigers (0-8-0), (0-8-0) and SOMEONE is going to walk out of the WSHS Natatorium with their first dual meet win of the season. 

As with earlier meets, how the meet shakes out will be determined by what happens after the first wall touch in each race. It’s not who wins, but who takes 2-3-4 that helps determine outcomes. 

200 Medley Relay The Opening relay should be the closest relay of the evening. 

200 Freestyle – Winhawks Hodd Gorman and Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow have a good chance of finishing 1-2 in this one. 

200 IM – Winhawk Cal Dretske shouldn’t need to look around after his final turn on this one, they should all be coming back at him still. 

50 Freestyle. Winhawk Roger Brosnahan should have body lengths to spare here. Behind him will be a wall of water and 5 swimmers very closely matched. 

Diving – Winhawk Dan Karnick should out score his Tiger competitors over at the Middle School. The problem is he is flying solo so the Tigers will out score him. 

100 Yard Butterfly will be a great race between Winhawk Kyle Schneider and AL’s Preston Smith.

100 Freestyle will be a repeat of the 50 Free.

The 500 Freestyle – Winhawk Hodd Gorman will cruise unmolested for the second straight meet. Sadly the Tigers may outscore the Winhawks here just due to the number of entrants. 

The 200 Freestyle Relay should fall to the Winhawks with Roger Brosnahan anchoring. 

The 100 Backstroke should be AL’s with Sr. Issac Olsen leading the way. Winona will counter with young Aaron Whyte and he may just surprise everyone. 

The 100 Breaststroke will be Winhawk Cal Dretske taking the field for a ride. Winon’a Jake Johnson may just make this a rare Winona 1-2 finish. 

The 400 Freestyle Relay looks to fall to the Winhawks. Albert Lea may be the one Big 9 school with less depth than Winona. 

Big 9 Standings thru 1/24

The Big 9 is a little cluttered at the top but not for long. The Big 9 leader will be established Thursday evening when Century and Mayo square off. 

Big Nine Standings		Overall			Big 9
Teams	W	L	T	W	L	T
Rochester Century	8	0	0	8	0	0
Rochester Mayo	7	1	0	7	0	0
Mankato East/Loyola	5	2	0	5	2	0
Owatonna	5	3	1	5	3	1
Faribault	4	5	1	4	2	1
Rochester John Marshall	4	3	1	4	3	0
Austin High School	3	4	0	3	4	0
Mankato West	1	6	0	1	6	0
Winona H.S.	0	5	0	0	5	0
Albert Lea	0	8	0	0	7	0

When the stars align, the kids appear, health is assured and everything goes their way………..

The Winona Winhawk Boy’s Swim & Dive Team isn’t wondering what it will take to win a dual meet. Some things they can control, others well……… After winning 2 of the 3 relays, and 5 of the 9 individual events, you would think the Winhawks (0-5-0), (0-5-0) would have notched their first W. The fact is swimming and diving is indeed a TEAM sport and after the coveted 1^st place finish, it is what happens afterward in 2-3-4 that helps win swim meets. So Winona knows what it takes to win swim meets, swimming faster than the other team. Having things fall into place to accomplish that is what seems to elude the Winhawks. 

Austin (3-4-0), (3-4-0) came into Winona feeling it was their time. They had lost two really close meets, coming down to the final relay. As Coach Gulbrandson put it, “barely losing them means we were REALLY close to winning them”. Their 2-4-0 record could easily have been 4-2-0 prior to Thursday night’s contest. They rely on having a solid core of swimmers that deliver 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th finishes, the points you need to pull off a win. 

Besides swimming fast(er), athletes need to be healthy. Winter means enclosed spaces and germ factories otherwise known as schools. To have 25 boys all be healthy at once is, well, a feat, or luck. Put all that together plus two closely matched teams competing and you have a difficult outcome to predict. 

The 200 Medley Relay went as expected with the Winhawks touching first. Cal Dretske showed what type of night he might have recoding his quickest split of the season. More importantly, the “B” Relay saw Aaron Whyte lead things off with a quality backstroke, Jake Johnson swam his best breaststroke split of the season, Alex Kline was an eyelash off of his best fly of the year and Connor Kosidowski set a personal best Free split and they touched 3^rd giving the Winhawks a big leg up after the first event. 

Winona                10           Austin                   4

The 200 Freestyle was Winona’s first peak at Nick Brehmer Austin’s powerhouse freestyler. Ninth at last year’s Class A State Championships he dominated showing he is looking to make the finals at State this year. Winona’s Hodd Gorman and Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow both swam season low times in scoring 2^nd & 4^th respectively. 

Winona                16           Austin                   14

The 200 IM was a perfect example of what the pre-meet prediction framed. Winona’s Cal Dretske showed that his relay swim was an indicator and took the varsity heat out hard. He finished body lengths ahead bettering his season low by 2 ½ seconds to win. Behind him though were 3 Austin swimmers and while the Winhawks win the event, they lose on points and the score evens.

Winona                23           Austin                   23

The 50 Freestyle is a Winona highlight with Roger Brosnahan swimming quick enough to win handily. Co-Captain Alex Kline swims a hair off his fastest of the season to eek out 3^rd and Kyle Schneider, who was swimming ill, is placed in the 50 free for the first time ever (as best I can tell) securing the 5^th place scoring and Winona is back in the lead.  

Winona                33           Austin                   29

Diving results feed over from the Middle School and although Dan Karnick is only a half point off his season high of last week, he places 2^nd to a stellar effort by Austin’s Caleb Bently. Adding to the picture, Austin has two more divers to Winona’s none and Austin vaults into the points lead. 

Winona                37           Austin                   40

The 100 Butterfly was a major blow to the Winhawks’ hopes. Even with the diving break to settle things, an ill Kyle Schneider still swims but cannot match any of his prior season performances. Though Sr. C-Captain Alex Kline guts out his 2^nd best swim of the season, Austin finishes 1-2-3 and takes a commanding lead!

Winona                40           Austin                   53

The 100 Freestyle was the battle of the titans this evening. For Austin, they send to the blocks their 2011 State semi-finalist in the 100 Freestyle Nick Brehmer. Standing on the blocks next to him is Winona’s big gun Roger Brosnahan looking to re-establish his presence after being gone a season. The result was the experienced Brehmer touching out Brosnahan. Austin’s Christopherson places 3^rd while Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow swims 2 tenths off his season low for 4^th. Senior Connor Kosidowski for the second met in a row is denied his membership in the Minuteman club by mere hundredths of a second scoring in 5^th place. The high Austin finishes add to their lead. 

Winona                47           Austin                   62

The 500 Freestyle went off as predicted, with Winona’s budding distance swimming Hodd Gorman taking the field out for a ride. Following meet after meet of being pushed hard, one might think Gorman would welcome a nice easy victory, but that is not his way. Gorman went out hard and pushed the entire way lowering his season best by 3 seconds and finishing nearly half a minute ahead of the pack. While a great outing for Gorman, the problem with the 500 Free is that Winona is woefully short of competitors. Winona’s only other entry, Freshman Alex Vaslow takes 5^th and the Winhawks fall further behind on points.  

Winona                54           Austin                   71

The 200 Freestyle Relay looked like it was going to slam the door shut on Winona when Austin’s “A” Relay jumped out to a body length lead. Then they committed the biggest sin in swimming, jumping early with a HUGE lead. With Austin’s relay DQ’ed, Winona benefits from it and that door opens wide after now placing 1-2. A 2 point deficit turns into a 10 point advantage and narrows the gap in a big way giving Winona renewed hope. 

Winona                66           Austin                   73

In the 100 Backstroke, perhaps inspired by their good fortune, Aaron Whyte steps up and performs by swimming a new personal best to win. As feared, Austin’s contingent of backstrokers overcome a huge personal best improvement by Winona’s Jeremy Roberts and Austin places 2-3-4 winning the point side of the equation and extending their lead again. 

Winona                73           Austin                   82

The 100 Breaststroke was one of Winona’s highlights for the night. Cal Dretske performed as expected outdistancing the field. Even more significant was the performance of the other two Winhawk entrants. Jr. Jake Johnson AND Sr. Connor Kosidowski stepped up to place 3-5 and A) break-up the results of the Austin swimmers and B) give the Winhawks the edge in points and putting the meet into the hands of the 400 Freestyle Relay swimmers. 

Winona                83           Austin                   88

The 400 Freestyle Relay was going to decide who won this contest and that is never a good place for Winona. Winona could pull off the come from behind victory but it would take a 1-3 finish to do it. Alas, Winona’s feeder system of youth swimming is not bringing enough boys into HS and as such, their squads have been small. With the limitation on the number of entries a swimmer can have, coupled with the diminished numbers on the team, Winona does not have much fire power left at the end of each meet. The result is a first place finish for the Austin packers going away and as such, another loss for the Winhawks. Further complicating matters was the disqualification of the Winhawk “B” relay for an early jump, thus making the win an impossibility even IF the Packers had done the unthinkable and DQ’ed their “A” relay again. 

Final Score    Winona       87           Austin           96

“Hey aren’t you a Packer?” “Yeah and that’s Mr. Packer to you Bub!”

The Austin Packers (2-4-0), (2-4-0) are coming to Winona lookin’ for a little respect at the expense of the Winhawks (0-4-0), (0-4-0). Austin’s record includes two losses that were determined in the final event, losing by one and two points respectively. Their other two losses are to Class AA powerhouse Rochester teams, so I suspect the Packers are coming to Winona feeling a little disrespected or maybe misrepresented is a more accurate description. In either case, like determination, frustration can be a heck of a motivator. 

As for the Winhawks, they may be of a similar mindset. After hosting and loosing to a frustrated Owatonna team, (they lost a meet to a last event controversial DQ) then getting beat up by a pair of Rochester Teams, the Winhawks may be looking to say “enough is enough” themselves. What it all boils down to is the makings of a really good Big 9 dual meet!

Sizing up how the meet may progress is a tough assignment. Austin’s long time Coach Lynn Gulbrandson is a master strategist. Looking at his past meets, he uses his swimmers where they are needed in each meet and has created a versatile bunch of young men. One consistent trend is that the Packers do not possess many big guns, just quality swims that score well in the middle of the pack. It is possible to not win any of the 12 events and still win the meet.  The Winhawks will have to look not to Brosnahan, Gorman, Schneider and Dretske but swimmers like Kline, Kleinow, Johnson and Kosidowski to try and pull this one out. 

The 200 Medley Relay looks to fall to the Winhawks if they are healthy. Four of their six swims this year are better than Austin’s best swim but look for Austin to challenge and if not win, take 2-3. 

The 200 Freestyle may feature Austin’s one big weapon. Nick Brehmer is a 1:52 and should give Winona’s Hodd Gorman a good target to aim for.

The 200 IM could be Cal Dretske’s to command, the key will be for Kyle Schneider to place ahead or break up the Austin pack of Ben Carroll, Sawyer Myers, and Ben Carroll who are all in the 2:23 – 2:25 range like Kyle. 

The 50 Freestyle, if he's healthy, should be all Roger Brosnahan. When he touches and looks back, he will look to see if Conner Kosidowski and Alex Kline are ahead or mixed amongst Austin’s Craig Heimark and Carson Hackel.  the middle finishes here will determine the victor.

Diving, taking place over at the Middle School will be another one we wish we could watch. Dan Karnick set an all-time high last week and he will need it against the Austin divers. Winona having only one diver means even with a win, Austin will outscore Winona in diving; it is just a matter of by how much.  

The 100 Butterfly may be THE race to watch Thursday night. Winona’s Kyle Schneider and Sr. Co-Captain Alex Kline will likely be matched against Ben Carroll, Craig Heimark, and Seth Clasen. All are VERY evenly matched and should be shoulder to shoulder for ALL 100 yards. 

The 100 Freestyle should again fall to a healthy Roger Brosnahan going head to head with Nick Brehmer. Austin has two more sub-minute freestylers in Jordan Bentley and Jacob Legried. Connor Kosidowski has the challenge before him, break up the 2-3-4 and enter the Minuteman Club all at the same time. 

The 500 Freestyle, if it plays out as expected, may be the pressure-less event Hodd Gorman has not been afforded in some time. The problem lies in Austin’s having three 5:40ish swimmers that will outscore Hodd 9-6 having no Winhawks to back him up.

The 200 Freestyle Relay will be hotly contested. Winona’s fastest time is less than one second behind Austin’s. The question is, who gets 3^rd to determine the point spread?

The 100 Backstroke will need to have the Winhawks’ Aaron Whyte be in top form. Austin’s Caleb Asay and Carson Hackel have sub 1:08’s and will be looking to upset. Again, with no one to compliment Aaron, the Packers may lose by time but win by points. 

The 100 Breaststroke is a “ditto” of the back only with Cal Dretske in the driver’s seat. Jake Johnson will be the go to guy here looking to break up the Austin duo of Alex Laury and Chris Brown to stay on top in points. 

The 400 Freestyle Relay, if it come down to it, will be the Achilles Heel of Winona. Austin has the depth to have strength here while Winona is typically spent by this point. Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that!