They say you are judged by the company you keep.

Winhawks, you add a lot of style and determination to a likewise stellar bunch of State Championship swimmers & divers.

Thursday starts the spectacle that I like to refer to as THE BIG SHOW, The Minnesota State High School Swimming & Diving Championships. Held at the University Of Minnesota Aquatic Center in the Dorothy L. Sheppard Pool, The Aquatic Center has been the site for some of the top swimming and diving events in the country: nine Big Ten Championships, six NCAA Championships, many national and international competitions, they will host the Women’s Big 10 Championships this Spring and were just chosen as the site for the NCAA Women’s Championships in 2014. 

The 2013 Girls’ Swimming & Diving Championships seeding sheet is out and here are my insights to help you follow some of the interesting plots and twists that will take place at the MN State swimming & Diving Championships Prelims!

Seeding for Championship meets are staggered to spread the field out over the 3 final qualifying heats. So the fastest seed is in the Final Heat Lane 4, the second fastest seed is in Lane 4 of the 2^nd to last heat, and the third fastest seed is in Lane 4 of the 3^rd to the last heat. The seeds then follow the same order in Lane 5, then in lane 3, Lane 6, Lane 2, Lane 7, Lane 1 and then Lane 8 has the final 3 fastest seeds. Any remaining seeds follow normal seeding in in the next heat and subsequent heats until everyone is seeded.  

The Winhawks will be bringing both experience AND youth to this year’s State Championships. Appearing first on Thursday will be returning State Qualifier Senior Co-Captain Crystal Franzwa after successfully defending her Section Crown. Senior Co-Captain Alexandra Zuelke, Juniors Haley O’Neill and Reese Galewski were all part of last year’s 200 Medley Relay. Joining Alex and Haley in last year’s 4x50 Free Relay was Cotter Junior Emily Thurow and of course Alex was in last year’s 100 Breaststroke. Making her Big Show debut will be Cotter Freshman Morgan Whyte filling the graduated MacKenzie Brosnahan’s shoes very very well in both the Medley Relay and the 4x50 Free Relay! 

First up for the Winhawks, the 200 Medley Relay. The Winhawks return their Medley relay for the 2^nd year in a row, both qualifying by time standard! 

The Winhawk Medley Relay of Cotter Freshman Morgan Whyte, Cotter Senior Co-Captain Alexandra Zuelke, Winhawk Junior Reese Galewski and Winhawk Junior Haley O’Neill draw a great seeding in my analysis. They are the 14^th seed in a field of 27 entries. That lands them in Lane 2 in the third heat (4 total heats). By three heats in, the capacity crowd should have the place pretty well rocking and if the girls weren’t feeling it already, they will be by now! They are bracketed by the two highest qualifiers from Section 8, Buffalo in Lane 1 and Elk River in Lane 3. Having a couple of close rivals on both sides of you will help step up the intensity a little bit and if they are pushing each other you can feed off of that! Add to that, Elk River is returning the same four girls that qualified for last year’s Consolation Final. This year they are seeded 8^th and will be dying to make that Championship Final, grab onto their coat tails and ride on with them! On the inside of Elk River in Lane 3 will be the Defending Champion Edina Hornets. They are seeded 2^nd, and are sure to get out and flex their muscles, stepping up things for every one! As an added bonus, there will be some familiar faces in the heat! The Rockets of John Marshall are down the way in Lane 5 and who do we find out in Lane 7 but our friends from the first meet of the Year, St. Michael Albertville. Mix some intensity with some easing familiarity and you concoct success! On a side note, in that opening swim meet of 2012, STMA took the Winhawks by 2 seconds. Their seedings show the edge going to Winona as the ‘Hawks are 4 tenths faster!

We get to enjoy ourselves basking in the competition of the 200 IM before our next Winhawks head to the start end. 

The 50 Freestyle has two Winhawk competitors for the first time in a few years! Senior Co-Captain Alexandra Zuelke placed 4^th at the Section 1AA Championships and her teammate, Junior Haley O’Neill finished right behind her in 5^th.  Because of the seeding protocol, Alexandra will be up first swimming in Lane 6 of the second heat. To her inside in Lane 5 is Liz Cane, a senior from Minnetonka that, like Alex, will likely have swum in the opening 200 Medley Relay. She is a Backstroker that has also qualified here in the 13^th seed. She was at the Championships last year in those same 3 events, finishing 19^th in the 50 Free, 11th in the Medley Relay and 14^th in the Backstroke. Suffice it to say she is quite experienced.  To Alex’s other side is Allison Schwab from Elk River. They should be getting to know each other quite well. They should have just swum side-by-side in the Medley relay as they are both Breaststrokers. They were both in last year’s 100 Breaststroke event and will both be again this year, albeit different prelim heats.  Next in Heat 3 we get to watch Winhawk Junior Haley O’Neill make her State 50 Free debut in the 17^th seed. She will be in Lane 7 and will do well to hitch her wagon and then shoot ahead of Mary Whiting next to her in Lane 6. The Osseo/MCA Freshman finished 16^th in last year’s Big Dance and qualified in a time under last year’s performance. 

We get to watch diving Finals on Saturday between swimming events, but that will be the last 3 dives of Senior Co-Captain Crystal Franzwa’s list. Her first 8 dives will be on Thursday evening in the preliminaries and semi-finals. There are 32 divers qualified for the Big Show, the top four divers from the eight Section meets. Their diving list is made up of a combination of voluntary dives and optional dives. The Voluntary dives (Front Dive, Back Dive, Reverse Dive, Inward Dive and Twister) cannot add up to more than 9.0 degree of difficulty. The Optional dives, are dives from each of the voluntary groups but done in higher degree of Difficulty (DD) positions and variations (multiple somersaults and twists) They will perform 5 dives, any two voluntary dives & three optional dives, and cut the field from 32 to 20 by points scored. They will perform another 3 dives, consisting of 2 voluntary dives and 1 optional dive. The field will then be cut from 20 down to 16 based on points scored. The final 3 dives performed Saturday night between the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Butterfly will consist of their final voluntary dive and 2 optional dives. Crystal’s diving order position is right in the middle of the pack (15 of 32), the diver immediately before her from Buffalo is a senior but did not appear in last year’s State Championships. 

Next up for the Winhawks, Junior Haley O’Neill is seeded 20^th in the 100 Freestyle. That seed buys her Lane 1 in the 3^rd of 4 total heats. On her right will be the Referee. Not me I am very sorry to say but I am sure he/she will be very a pleasant individual, just little help in the water. On her left will be a Junior Abby Saddler from Minnetonka. She was not in this event last year, but was a pure sprinter for the Skippers at last year’s Championships anchoring their Medley Relay (11^th place) their 4x50 Free Relay (2^nd) as well as finishing 14^th in the 50 Freestyle (in which she is also seeded 13^th this year). Not bad company to be in and a GREAT person I would think about drafting off of!

After some rest during 4 heats of the 500 Freestyle, the 200 Freestyle Relay will step to the blocks. The Winhawk foursome of Haley O'Neill, Morgan Whyte, Emily Thurow, and Alex Zuelke are seeded 18^th. There are 4 heats and their seed lands them in Lane 7 of the second heat. Because of the seeding rules, Lane 8 next to them is empty even though there is a prior heat. That could be a major plus as there will be no wall to their left but nice quiet water! On their right in Lane 6 is Chanhassen. One of 5 teams to qualify out of Section 6, it appears everyone but the Lunch ladies could meet the standard in that Section. To be fair, the Section includes the likes of the Defending Champion Edina, Runner up Minnetonka and 5^th place Eden Prairie in last year’s 4x50 Free championships. The wind shear alone probably helped the other 2 get sucked into the standard. Once again, the Winhawks can relax behind the blocks as they wave to their friends from St. Michael Albertville, seeded 15^th down in Lane 2. In their dual meet, STMA had the edge by a full second; here the Winhawks have cut that margin in half. Both squads will be gunning to make that 16^th place cut and swim again on Saturday!

Last but not least, or in her case is it last but never last, is Senior Co-Captain Alexandra Zuelke in the 100 Breaststroke. Alex’s victory in the Section1AA Championships earned her the 11^th seed which fell into Heat 2 Lane 6. To her outside is the 2^nd Place finisher out of Section 8, Kristin Podratz  from Eastview. An experienced State qualifier, she just missed the 100 Fly Consolations last year along with being on 2 relays.  To Alex’s right will be, I know it’s a theme, but St. Michael Albertville’s Kasey Roberts. Although their teams met in the first meet of the year, these two did not. Kasey was busy winning the 200 IM and the 100 Butterfly in that meet, Alex walked away with the 100 Breaststroke. Now the two swim side-by-side. Kasey placed 6^th in last year’s State Championships in this event. Alex will be well advised to stay with her and the two of them can be repeating this performance in the Saturday evening finals.

The Meet looks to be another great contest and the Winhawks are well poised to improve on their 28^th place finish last year. Every seed they have is inside or just on the edge of the top 16. Stay loose, stay focused, and for gosh sakes enjoy the moment, smile, have fun, savor that time behind the blocks, and the rest will fall into place!

See you ON Deck!