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 1st
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 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 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
3rd 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 2nd & 4th
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 3rd 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 5th 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 2nd
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 2nd 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 3rd while Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow swims 2
tenths off his season low for 4th. 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 5th 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 5th 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
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