At the Section 1AA Championships, the honor of awarding the
podium medals goes to the coach of the winning swimmer/diver. Saturday
afternoon, Winona’s Cal Dretske gave his Coach Amy Schulz plenty of notice. If
she gets nervous in front of a crowd she better buck up “‘cause we’re BOTH headin’
for the awards stand”.
The Winhawk Swimmers & Diver had a very successful
Section prelims day. Aside from the obvious successes, (Sophomore Cal Dretske and
Senior Co-Captain Dan Karnick), the majority of the swimmers that were on the cusp
of making finals day managed to accomplish that goal. As a result, the Winona
Winhawks has a competitor in EVERY event, a feat not matched by all the teams.
That bodes well for Winona Swimming!
One of the toughest things to predict on Finals Day is the
relays. With 8 entry slots and 8 teams, barring getting DQ’ed every team
advances from the prelims. While some coaches think there are advantages to
trying to be in the middle lanes ( faster prelim time means better seeding), a
guaranteed pass to finals means swimmers can throttle back somewhat in the
relays and focus on their individual preliminary events. So the seeding for
Relay Finals can be somewhat meaningless.
The 200 Medley Relay saw the Winhawks seeded 3rd.
Swimming out of Lane 3 they were next to some speedy company. Lead out by Cotter
Sophomore Roger Brosnahan, they were looking good as Roger swam the fastest 50
Back split of the season and over a second faster than his prelim split.
Followed by Dretske (tenths off his record split from Thursday), Sophomore Kyle
Schneider (a personal record fly split bettering Thursday) and lastly Sr. Co-Captain
Alex Kline (equaling his Thursday performance) the Winhawks drop another second
off their seed but finish a VERY respectable 4th place!
The 200 Freestyle had two Winhawks entries. Senior
Co-Captain Joey Kleinow, on the strength of his monster drop personal best in
prelims, had matched the field and made the cut into the Consolation Final. Joey
held his taper essentially matching his prelim time and moved up one more notch
into 15th place. The Championship Final featured Cotter Sophomore Hodd
Gorman seeded 5th. In a very strong field dominated by Rochester
Century, Hodd, looking forward to the 500 Freestyle event, yields a few spots
swimming just 3 tenths off his seed time and finishing 7th overall.
The 200 IM had just one entry, Winhawk Sophomore Cal Dretske
in the Consolation Heat. The IM is a demanding event where you swim all four of
the competitive strokes and leads come and go as the swimmers get to their specialty.
Today was no different as Cal, in 3rd after the fly and 5th
after the backstroke smoked the field in his breaststroke specialty and pulled into
second. He pushed the leader so hard that he was gaining and had the even been
just ONE yard longer, Cal would have won the Consolation heat. As it was Cal
had his personal best time and had better times than two of the competitors in the
following Championship Finals heat.
The 50 Freestyle had two entrants in the Consolation heat.
Sr. Co-Captain Alex Kline who’s personal best prelims effort lifted him from middle
of the pack into the 15th seed, and Cotter Sophomore Roger Brosnahan
who’s State Meet hopes were riding on swimming the time of his career. All
knowledgeable eyes were on the center of the pool as Roger pulled away from the
field in quest of his goal. While that attention was deserved, down in Lane one
Alex was putting on a show of his own. Motoring past the only competitor he can
see in Lane 2, Alex destroys the personal best he set days prior. In an event
where improvement is measured in hundredths, Alex matches his 4 tenths improvement
from Thursday and moves way up to finish 12th overall. Back to
Roger, he leads the Consolation Final at the wall and dragging his competition
with him, touches at the finish an eyelash off of the State Qualifying time.
His time was actually faster than 2 of the competitors in the Championship Final
which saw the other 6 entrants ALL qualify for State.
Diving featured Winona’s ONLY competitor in the sport,
Cotter Sophomore and Senior Co-Captain Dan Karnick. A bit of a lonely figure,
he has been training by himself and in the case of home meets diving by
himself, all season under the guidance of former Winhawk and now coach Josh Bublitz.
Dan has made great strides this season gaining not only in his skills but also
in his confidence. He had a better dive list than the majority of the field and
works the board for more height than any of the competitors. Coach Bublitz said
Dan was very disappointed in his prelims performance, thinking that he should have
been in First place rather than the Third he found himself in now. Coach
Bublitz put blame upon himself, saying he had “switched up” Dan’s diving list
in anticipation of making State. He moved some of Dan’s better or favorite
dives forward rather than later in his program. Diving is such a mentally
challenging as well as physical sport that such a change to your routine can be
disruptive. The goal at this point was to dive solidly and secure one of the four
spots that advance to State. Dan performed well, throwing his Reverse 1 ½ somersault
tuck, Back 1 ½ somersault tuck and his forward 2 somersault pike for solid
scores to maintain his 3rd place finish and pull away from the rest
of the pack. Dan became the First Winhawk competitor to qualify for the MN State
Championships next weekend at the University of MN!
The 100 Yard Butterfly had two Winhawks appearing in the Consolation
Final. Senior Co-Captain Alex Kline was having a great Section Meet. He had
bettered the field seeded out of contention to claim the 16th seed
and the right to return on Saturday! His swim out in Lane 8 was noticeable as
still behind the Swimmer in Lane 7 at the 50, he gutted out the last lap and
pulled ahead to jump up to 14th overall. Over in Lane 2, his
teammate Cotter Freshman Kyle Schneider was still celebrating not only a
personal best time but having broken the one minute barrier on Thursday. Achieving
that for a young Flyer is both a physical but maybe more so a mental milestone
and coaches are looking for big things from this young man going forward.
Saturday proved to help fortify that notion as Kyle out split (was faster) in
his second 50 of the race than all but one swimmer in the pool and moved up to
11th overall in another new personal best time.
The 100 Freestyle also had two Winhawks behind the blocks
for the Consolation Final. Lane 1 had Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow, there on the
strength of his monster drop for a new personal best on Thursday. That kind of performance
was a necessity as it took all he had to convert his 17th seed into
a return for Saturday’s swimming. Joey proved his swim was no fluke equaling
his time and moving up to 15th overall in a quality performance. In
the middle of the pool was Cotter Sophomore Roger Brosnahan. Staring at his
last chance to earn a trip to the Big Show next week, he made it readily
apparent that he should have been contending in the Championship Final. At the
50 he was a full second ahead of the field and in clean water (his 50 split was
better than over half the Championship finalists). At the 75 turn he was nearly
a body length ahead of his competitors and actually had to content with the
wave of water coming at him as he turned for home. It may have been that wave
of water bleeding some speed but Roger touches just shy of the State qualifying
time. In an event where wins are measured in hundredths or sometimes maybe tenths,
he wins the Consolation heat by nearly a second and a half but his plans for
next weekend were dashed.
The 500 Freestyle had but one Winhawk competitor in the Finals, but
what a competitor he is. Cotter Sophomore Hodd Gorman is turning heads in
Southern Minnesota swimming and he has been putting up notice that he is a force
to be reckoned with. After a truly fun swim to watch Thursday where he set a
new personal best dropping nearly 12 seconds, he was seeded 5th
behind powerful Rochester Century’s 3 entries and a Northfield swimmer. The 5
of them were in a class by themselves, seeded 10 seconds ahead of the field and
the race was on from the get go. The Tri brothers from Rochester Century went
after each other with a vengeance pulling away from the crowd already by the 50
yard mark. Hodd stayed on their heels and started pulling away from his
competition as well. As the Tri brothers took off, Hodd kept pounding away, pushing
back twice when his opponents attempted to catch him. In the end he matched his closest
competitor’s sprint to the wall and Hodd not only moved up to 3rd
overall but smashed through the 5 minute barrier making for one happy swimmer!
The 200 Freestyle Relay saw the Winhawks give it their ALL with
3 of the four swimming their fastest 50 split ever and one was only off his by
one one hundredth of a second. Sr. Co-Captain Joey Kleinow leading out matched
his best 50 ever from Thursday, Cal Dretske with his State meet qualifying event
still ahead lays it all out and swims within one one hundredth of his personal
best, Roger Brosnahan swims a MONSTER 21.82 split and Sr. Co-Captain Alex Kline
anchors with a half second improvement on his personal best. With all that the
result shows just how tough Section 1AA is as the Winhawks finish 6th
overall!
The 100 Backstroke had but one Winhawk competitor. Cotter Sophomore Aaron
Whyte is behind the block in Lane 1 on the strength of his stellar performance in the prelims. Swimming in
the last heat of prelims, he knew he was going to have to not just beat but
smash his personal best to return for Saturday and he accomplished just that
earning the final qualification slot. Saturday’s Consolation Final had him
swimming against the best and he proved his seed was no fluke improving on it
once more and taking home 16th place.
The 100 Breaststroke was the event all Winona fans were
waiting for. Two Winhawks stood behind the blocks for the Championship final.
In Lane 1 seeded 7th on the strength of his new best time was
Winhawk Junior Jake Johnson. Behind the block in Lane 4, holding the top seed
from Thursday was Winhawk Sophomore Cal Dretske. Cal had blown the field away
in his early prelim on Thursday and watched as 16 more swimmers gunned for him
but could not match his performance. Saturday he was looking to validate that
performance and show he belonged at the head of the pack. At the start the
field was even turning almost in unison at the 25. By 50 Cal had started to
separate and was the first to touch by a few tenths. Out in Lane 1 Jake was
holding his own sitting in 4th. Down the stretch it was an even
race. Jake fell off just slightly but moved up from his seed to finish a strong 6th
overall. In the middle of the pool Cal had the lead and held off the competitors in 3 and 6 matching
their finishing efforts. He not just wins the Section 1AA Championship in the 100 Breaststroke, he has a trip with teammate Dan Karnick to the State Swimming & Diving
Championships! The Awards ceremony saw his warning to Coach Schulz ring true as
she got to hang medals on both of her swimmers beaming with pride!
The 400 Freestyle Relay had all 4 Winhawks, Sr. Co-Captain
Joey Kleinow, Jake Johnson, Kyle Schneider and Hodd Gorman swim a personal best
or very near placing 7th overall.
Final Scores State
Qualifiers (Relays count as 1)
Roch Century 432 11 (All 3 Relays 0 Divers)
Hastings 307 9 (2 Relays 0 Divers)
Farmington 273 5 (2 Relays 1 Diver)
Roch Mayo 253 7 (2 Relays 0 Divers)
Roch JM 247 6 (2 Relays 1 Diver)
Owatonna 208 1 (1 Diver)
Winona 201 2 (1 Diver)
Northfield 154 0
For you that are interested in Trivia:
Section 1AA Winner Century has 3 swimmers each in the 200
Free, 200 IM and 500 Free events. The 3 most grueling events of the competition
were 40% of their winning total. Add in the 3 Relay results and nearly 2/3rds of
Century’s winning points came from 6 of the 12 events.
Hastings won the Medley Relay, had 2 finalists in the 200 IM
and 3 in the Butterfly and won the 400 Free Relay.
JM had 4 divers scoring points, Northfield had 4, and
Owatonna had 3.
The top two finishing teams had no divers and 3 of the
top 4 teams had no divers.
Owatonna’s divers score 44 points, nearly ¼th of their points
in one event and made the difference between 6th & 7th.
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