“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