Memories and Friendships

Last weekend I had the opportunity to get back together with some of my old Southwest Swimming & Diving teammates again. I say again because in August we had just had our every three year swim team reunion at the home of the Lukes, Brian is the very successful head coach of Stillwater High School.

So here we were back at our Alma Mater. It has been 30 +years and we still use the same nick names, still laugh about the same road trips to far away pools, still talk about Coach Palm with the same respect and fondness. The others that are back for Homecoming point and say " swimmers". We laugh together and get to talk to Coach Eckstrom (Diving) who was at both the team reunion and the 2010 Homecoming. His son received one of the Achievement awards. Four years of living, swimming, competing and yes studying created a very strong bond. 

We were at the 2010 Homecoming because two of our teammates were receiving Alumni Achievement awards. Even after 30 years we now walked around campus like we still owned it. In the day we did. We were 5 times Conference Champions, hosted the National Championships at our pool 4 times, placing as high as 6^th in the nation in 1976.  Our pool facility was one of the best in the Midwest, better than the University of Minnesota. We had 18 All Americans named in just 9 years of competition. One of my classmates from Burnsville High School visited me my Senior year. As we walked across campus, everyone was saying hi to me as we walked by. He asked me, “Do you know everyone here?” “Well, “, I said, “I know a lot of them, but they all know me”. No wonder, we had packed stands at our meets, more than the football and the basketball teams. They broadcast our swim meets on the local radio station. At the beginning of home meets, we always entered the pool in the dark lining up at the end of the pool. To the building crescendo of the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w  a spotlight slowly illuminated our team reflecting off of the pool surface until it became full intensity at the climax of the music. Everyone in the stands went crazy and we started the meet pumped up. 

In 1974 even Sports Illustrated had learned about us and paid a visit.  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1088269/index.htm 

Even 30+ years later, some of the guys' times are pretty quick. Hard to believe they pulled the plug on the program in 1980.

 

I say all this as some of you are considering colleges. I say consider continuing your swimming or diving in college. For students, it is a great augmentation of your college experience. It can be as pervasive or impacting as you choose, but it is always there. For Parents, it is another safety net, a coach and teammates looking out for your daughter or son. But, as I relived last weekend, it is memories, it is friendships, and as my teammates that received Alumni achievement awards last year and this year can attest to, it can be destiny shaping. 

Coach Palm

 Coach Eckstrom - Diving Coach

Gopher women crush Michigan State

The University of Minnesota Gopher Women make the Michigan travel weekend a success swimming & diving through the Michigan State Spartans (186-108) and improving their dual meet record to 2-0.

The team of Hannah Whitehead (Jr. East Grand Forks, Minn) , Jillian Tyler (Sr. Calgary, Alberta), Kaylee Jamison (Sr. St. Charles, Ill.), and Meagan Radecke (Sr. Stillwater, Minn) won the 200 Medley Relay with almost 10 yards to spare. After the Gophers went 1-2-3 the next two events, the 1000 Freestyle and the 200 Freestyle, they never looked back.

The Gophers won every swimming event for the first half of the meet and finished up winning 14 of the 16 events. Many Freshmen were allowed to step up and score points. Also noticeable in the results are the contingent of swimmers originating from Stillwater MN.

Two of those Freshmen won their first college events ever, Tess Behrens from Maple Grove MN who won the 100 back swimming 58.03 seconds and Kaela Anderson the Former Stillwater MN standout who tool the 400-yard individual medley in a 4:30.59

Other highlights include All-American Haley Spencer (So. O'Fallon, MO.), setting a pool record in the 20 yard breaststroke (2:18.11) and Freshman Diver Maggie Keefer from Stillwater MN winning 1 meter diving for the second day in a row (289.64).

Get your rest young ladies. Winhawk swimmers begin the most testing week of the season.

The Winona Winhawks (4-3) embark on the most arduous week of the season swimming & diving in 4 tough contests in 8 days.

They start out Tuesday with the long hour and a half drive to Owatonna Junior High (where the competition pool is) to swim & dive against the Owatonna Huskies (4-4) more on that in a few days. A tough meet that includes diving also means a very late night return.

On Thursday the Winhawks get to stay home for a dual meet and stage a border battle with the Onalaska/Holmen/Aquinas co-op team from across the river.

Saturday the Winhawks are back on the bus very early in the morning to make their longest trek of the season to the Section 1AA True Team Meet in Faribault. The True Team meet is a meet between the Section Teams but rather than a prelim/finals format seen at the Section 1AA state qualifying meet, the True Team format is a timed final and scores points deeper. Thus, as it implies, a team’s score is based on the strength of their entire roster rather than a handful of stellar swimmers.It will be a full day of swimming & diving with an early start so Sunday will indeed be a rest day.

Finally the following Tuesday the Winhawks (4-3) host the Faribault Falcons (6-2) in the last dual meet before the Big 9 Conference Championships.

From there the Winhawks have an 8 day layoff until the JV Big 9 Meet back in Owatonna and the Varsity swimmers & divers get a 10 day rest/build-up to Big 9 in Rochester at the Rochester Rec Center.

Gopher Women defeat Michigan 169-131 to win their opening meet of the season

The Gophers dominated the first 3 events winning the 400 Medley Relay and sweeping 1-2-3 in the 1650 and 200 free style. They never looked back from there.

All American Jillian Tyler won the 100 (1:00.86) & 200 Breast (2:13.59) and the 200 IM (2:05.03).

Junior Hannah Whitehead took the 100 & 200 Backstroke (56.44 & 2:01.39).

Gopher Freshman Margaret Keefer, last year’s Class AA Springboard Diving State champion from Stillwater won the 1 Meter Diving (319.35).

Junior Ashley Steenvoorden won the 1650 Freestyle finishing 26 seconds ahead of the pack in 16:32.04. For you swimmers doing the math that is averaging a hair over 30 seconds a 50 for 33 laps as in:


28.18   30.57   30.26   30.35   30.32   30.58   30.44   30.37
30.36   30.27   29.78   29.95   30.06   30.07   30.24   30.01
30.27   30.44   30.38   30.47   29.84   29.99   29.96   30.10
30.08   29.98   29.99   30.12   29.98   30.03   29.98   29.98
28.64

Junior Marissa Davies won the 200 Freestyle in 1:50.68

JM offers some lows and a few highs.

The 200 Medley Relay perhaps signaled the course of events for the evening. The Winhawk A Relay of Senior Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl, Senior Taylor Johnson, Freshman Reese Galewski and Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek place second with the slowest time they have posted this season.  JM’s A Relay consisting of Co-Captain Claire Akasamit, Lauren Kalwasinski, Allison Schumacher, and Co-Captain Caitlin Fujan place first. Their time was just a hair ahead of the Winhawks’ time the last meet Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke was healthy.

Winona          4          JM       10

The 200 Freestyle saw Winhawk Freshman Haley O’Neill give it all she had against JM’s Risa Ricard. Swimming hard and staying with her through the 100 yard turn she couldn’t keep up that torrid pace. Her 2:08.55 showed some burn-out at the end even though it was still her 2^nd best swim of the season. Winona Cotter 8^th Grader Morgan Whyte matches her best of the year to place 5th.

 Winona         9          JM       21

The 200 Individual Medley is a windfall for the Rockets as the Winhawks have no seasoned swimmers to counter. Sensing weakness JM's seasoned Head Coach Paul Bachman enters three strong swimmers and takes 1-2-3. JM extends their lead with the 13-3 difference in points.

Winona          12        JM       34

The 50 Freestyle was contested in pairs.  As the teams left the blocks Winona’s Junior speedster from Cotter MacKenzie Brosnahan had JM’s Schumacher swimming next to her. Bracketing them a few feet back Sr. Co-Captain Bridget Bawek is right across from JM’s Fujan. Bracketing them right off their shoulders was Winona’s Jr. Lalita Charungchainanon and JM’s Anklan.  They go down and back in a pyramid formation and Schumacher touches out Brosnahan by 0.18 seconds. Then, one second later Fujan touches out Bawek by 5 one hundredths of a second for 3rd place. Lastly, Winona's Charungchainanon out finishes Anklan to score the final points.The whole event is over in 27 seconds.

Winona          19        JM       43

Diving too had its issues to deal with. Winhawk Sophomore Crystal Franzwa was left home ill so the Winona Diving team of Janelle Mueller, Megan Seeley and Sarah Scherbring were present to counter the JM divers. Winhawk Freshman Janelle Mueller rises to the occasion hitting her Inward 1 ½ ss to exceed her high score of the season by 30 pts and places 3^rd with 160.15 Sophomore Megan Seeley follows right behind her also scoring a season high for 5^th place. Not to be outdone, the youngster 8^th Grader Sarah Scherbring also racks up her high of the season.

Winona          23        JM       55

The100 Butterfly was one of the few highlights for the Winhawks Tuesday night. Winona Freshman Reese Galewski swims a solid race and was uncontested the final 25 to win a clean 1^st. Sr. Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl finished an easy 3rd.  Bluffview 7^th Grader Hanna O’Neill cruises to score the final available point in 5^th place.

Winona          33        JM       61

The 100 Freestyle was another tough event for the Winhawks. The JM Rockets are strong everywhere, but Freestyle is a forte. Cotter Jr. MacKenzie Brosnahan swims to a solid 2^nd, Jr. Lalita Charungchainanon takes 4^th.

Winona          39        JM       71

We knew the 500 Freestyle was going to be tough. Close your eyes and point at the JM bench and odds are you will select a sub 6 minute swimmer. JM swims a 5:25 and 5:40 to take 1-2. Haley O’Neill digs deep to match her best swim ever and holds off JM’s final swimmer to break-up the sweep. Cotter Sophomore Grace Ell swims to the 5^th place points.

Winona          43        JM       83

The 200 Freestyle Relay was THE best race of the evening. The Winhawk relay of Junior Lalita Charungchainanon, Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek, Freshman Haley O’Neill (right off of the 500 Free) and Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan swim like they are tired of losing to these guys. All four swimmers churn the water up and back staying side-by-side with their JM counterpart. There was inching forward, there was inching backward, but no one was giving in. For the final leg Brosnahan leaves the block ever so slightly behind JM and slowly pulls closer in 25 yards. After the turn they are head to head. At the wall JM touches out Winona by 5 one hundredths of a second, the blink of an eye! The Winona team may have been touched out in the race but they powered their way to the 5^th FASTEST Winhawk 200 Free Relay ever and knocking their Assistant Coach Jami Severson’s 1993 relay out of the top 10.

Winona          47        JM       93

The 100 Backstroke sees a 1-2 finish by Sr. Co-Captain Samantha Quandahl and Cotter 7^th Grader Morgan Whyte.

Winona          60        JM       93

The 100 Breaststroke was a 2 – 3 - 4 place finish for Winhawk Seniors Taylor Johnson and Co-Captain Bridget Bawek with Freshman Greer Kosidowski.

Winona          73        JM       93

The 400 Freestyle Relay features Freshman Haley O’Neill, Freshman Reese Galewski, Senior Taylor Johnson and Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan. They swim one of their better times of the season to a 2^nd place finish.

Final Score:

Varsity - Winona Winhawks (4-3, 3-3) 85    JM (6-0, 6-0)    93

Junior Varsity - Winona Winhawks  99               JM    66

While I am at it

Sorry, I am still working on my write up of Tuesday night's Winhawk swim meet at Roch JM.

But, did you know, the University of Minnesota Swimming Season is kicking off? The Gopher Womens' team travels to Michigan this weekend for meets against Michigan on Friday night and Michigan State on Saturday. Their first home meet is the following Saturday against Iowa State. I will keep you informed.

The Men don't debut until the end of the month but they have a number of home meets this year.

Most of the home meets (except Iowa State) are run co-ed so you'll be able to watch both squads and see Winona natives Gopher Junior Matt Pappenfus and Sophmore Abby Staats. There will be opportunities to watch Big 10 swimming ( Wisconsin & Iown) as well as North Carolina & Missouri. Plus you have the USA Swimming Grand Prix in November which is the U of W Men & Womens' chance to take on not just other college athletes but some National Team/Olympic caliber swimmers as well. They take it as a direct challenge to have all these high calibre swimmers coming into THEIR pool.

Don't forget, college meets mean DIVING, DIVING DIVING. Not just one meter diving but 3 meter diving AND PLATFORM. If I ever thought about moving back to the Twin Cities.................

Lastly the U of M Men's Team hosts BOTH the Big 10 Championships AND the NCAA Division 1 Championships this year. What a great chance to see unbelieveable swimming. Because they compete NCAAs in the 25 yard pool they call it the FASTEST SWIMMING MEET IN THE WORLD!

Learn more at http://www.gophersports.com/ go to TEAMS and click on Men's or Women's Swimming & Diving.

“Yes young lady, you have to go to JM and swim the Rockets”.

Much like trips to the dentist and cleaning their room, some things your kids (insert swimmers) prefer not to do but have to at some point.

Add to that going to Rochester and swimming the Rockets at John Marshall. Why, you ask? Well, for starters it is an old pool. It looks very similar to the old Cooke Hall Pool (circa 1934) at the University of Minnesota and possibly built shortly after the official length for pools changed from 20 to 25 yards (just kidding). The end of the pool beneath the starting blocks is a high flat wall. There is no gutter to affix the touchpads, as memory serves they use duct tape or something.  Swimmers tell stories of the water jets on the sides of the pool pushing the swimmers in lanes 1 & 6 toward the inner lanes lines with a fair amount of force. All though it has a sort of nostalgic, part of history feel to it at the same time.

With all that as backdrop, don't ever let anyone tell you facilities make the athlete. Because facilities aside, going to JM also means swimming against the Rockets and I don’t know where to begin there. Swimming against JM is one of those character building exercises, where you get to see just how good you are on that given night.

Last Year the Rockets placed third in the nation in the NISCA Power Point Rankings for schools with 900-1,400 students. JM won the Big Nine Conference championship for the second straight season, won the Section 1AA Title and tied for seventh at the Class AA state meet. The Rockets have challenged themselves with defending those regional titles this year and are looking to move up at State.  They have almost 25 swimmers returning from that squad and nearly 40 in all. Of those returning they have 10 all conference selections, 8 State meet participants, 3 All State selections and 3 All-Americans. They are comprised of eleven seniors, three juniors, six sophomores, twelve Freshman, and five 8^th Graders.

Head Coach Paul Bachman is in his 25^th year at JM, the last 11 years also coaching the Girls Swimming team.

JM currently sits atop the Big 9 standings tied with Century at 5-0 in dual meets, those two meet head-to-head in two weeks and both are building for it. John Marshall won the Lakeville Invitational two weekends ago which included Roch Century but two days ago took second behind Rochester Century at the Packer Invitational in Austin. I saw JM was missing from the top three results of the 400 Freestyle Relay so perhaps they were DQ’ed. Seems unlikely they would swim exhibition and concede the meet.

For the dual meet against the Winhawks, it is a tough meet to profile as the Rockets are so deep, it is hard to tell who will be swimming what.

The 200 Medley Relay has the Winhawks swimming 1:59’s since the loss of Cotter Sophomore Alexandra Zuelke. JM swam a 1:53 winning Saturday’s event swimming Co-Captain Claire Akasamit, Lauren Kalwasinski, Allison Schumacher, and Co-Captain Caitlin Fujan. 

The 200 Freestyle has Winona’s standout swimmer Cotter Junior MacKenzie Brosnahan at about 2:00 flat. Winhawk Freshman Haley O’Neill turned in a 2:07 against Mayo. Notables for JM are Risa Ricard 2:00.01 Allison Schumacher 2:01.75 and Claire Aksamit 2:02.33.

The 200 IM has been a work in progress for the Winhawks with 2:28 – 2:30’s. JM’s Senior Caitlin Fujan has posted 2:20.01 down to 2:13.32 and Sophomore Lauren Kalwasinski 2:20.28

The 50 Free has been a strong suit for the Winhawks. Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek, Senior Taylor Johnson and Junior Lalita Charungchainanon have been touching in 26’s to 27. JM’s Allison Schumacher is at 25.01, Risa Ricard at 26.36. It will be a fun race to watch and see how inspired the WInhawks are to make an impact where they can.

Winhawk diving has scored good points in recent weeks, Tuesday will be a real test for Winhawk Sophomore Diver Crystal Franzwa. JM’s Jennifer Anklan won on Saturday at the Austin Invite and posts in the 200’s ( 220.70 vs Austin) Crystal has posted a 207 this season so it will come down to who hits all their dives.

In the 100 Butterfly, Winhawk Sophomore Reese Galewski continues to impress swimming 1:02’s to 1:04’s. JM has seen Allison Schumacher post a 58.92 and Claire Aksamit a 1:01.91.

In the 500 Freestyle, the Winhawks’ Haley O’Neill seems to have earned the lead role, swimming an awesome 5:55 at Mayo Thursday. JM is deep in the 500. Rochester seems to crank out distance swimmers regularly and has Shannon Grill at 5:29.62 and Elise Guenther 5:31.11.

The 200 Freestyle relay has slowed of recent after posting a string of 1:46’s. LM set a pool record at Mayo earlier in the season with the team of Aksamit, Becker, Fujan, and Schumacher swimming 1:43.31. Saturday Fujan, Kalwasinski, Ricard, and Schumacher swam 1:42.64.

The 100 Backstroke has featured the Winhawks Brosnahan along with Quandahl and 7^th Grader Morgan Whyte swimming 1:06’s – 1:08’s. JM’s Lauren Kalwasinski has been posting 1:02.’s.

The 100 Breatstroke is similar, Winhawk Senior Taylor Johnson continues to improve swimming 1:15’s and Senior Co-Captain Bridget Bawek has filled in while Zuelke heals up. JM could put in the pool Freshman Anna Becker at 1:13.

The 400 Freestyle Relay will be hard to call as it always depends on who is left to swim. The Winhawks’ most recent fastest swim goes to Haley O., Samantha Q., MacKenzie B., and Reese G at 1:57. JM’s team of Schumacher, Aksamit, Fujan, and Ricard posted a 3:41.52 in early September and Schumacher, Aksamit, Emery, Ricard touching in 3:48 last week.

It will be a good meet to go watch and see some great swimming and coaching, along with the fact we will get to watch DIVING!

See you there!