 |
Thursday, September 02, 2010
|
|
 |
|
|
| 10/15/2009 9:46:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Cats declawed by Orioles, rebound at Fridley and True Team meet
BY JEFF NORTON
Sports editor
St. Louis Park 46, Chisago Lakes 45
After conquering Irondale and Benilde-St. Margaret's earlier this year, the Wildcats had their sights set on the top dog in the North Suburban Conference. Or the top bird.
The St. Louis Park Orioles have been perched atop the conference for quite some time, and although the Wildcats gave it their best effort, and fast start by SLP doomed the Wildcats before they could even get to their strong events.
"[St. Louis Park Head Coach] Jake Schwietering is a really smart swimming guy," Chisago Lakes Head Coach Ed Wakefield said. "He had enough foresite to see that he could split up his two medley relay teams and still take the first place and possible the second."
That would be worst-case scenario for Wakefield and his swimmers, and it turned all too true when the Orioles' medley teams went one-two in the first event of the meet. "We didn't swim the relay particularily fast and that happened," Wakefield explained. "When they one-twoed us, it made it tough from the beginning."
The finish meant the Orioles jumped out to a 9-1 lead after the first event.
Thomi Lee and Hanna Lee kept the score even with a first and fourth place finish in the 200 yard freestyle. Thomi won the event with a 2:04.95 and Hanna got fourth with a 2:12.97.
St. Louis Park stretched their lead ever so slightly over the next two events, gaining two points in each event. In the 200 individual medley, Brogan Lee earned second place with a 2:18.10, and in the 50 freestyle, Heidi Willhite got second with a 26.58.
With the meet being held in St. Louis Park, Chisago Lakes got a tough break in the points column. Since St. Louis Park doesn't have a diving board, they don't count diving points in the meet. CL has some of the stronger divers in the conference and the state, so that really hurt them against a team as good as St. Louis Park.
Then, things got ugly for Chisago Lakes. In the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle, the Orioles went one-two in both events, winning them 7-1 each. That stretched what was already a steep 23-11 lead for St. Louis Park to a near insurmountable 37-13 deficit.
Brogan and Thomi Lee got a few points back in the 500 freestyle, going first and third, respectively, but it wasn't enough as the Orioles ballooned their lead to 46-22 after the next event.
With only three events left and the big lead, the Orioles decided to swim exhibition for the final three races. The choice made the score look a lot closer than it actually was as Chisago Lakes got an uncontested 23 points over the last three races.
"We didn't swim bad against St. Louis Park," Wakefield noted. "It wasn't our fastest times of the year, but not bad. However, St. Louis Park swam really fast. Many of their time were season best times for them."
Chisago Lakes 104, Fridley 79
After the tough loss to SLP, the Wildcats bounced back to trounce the Fridley Tigers two days later.
This time, the Wildcats were the ones doing the early punishing. Starting with the 200 medley relay team and going through Hanna Lee and Willhite, the Wildcats won all of the first three events. And although they didn't have individuals win in the 200 individual medley or the diving events, they won them on points by going two-three-four in both events.
The girls got individual winners out of the rest of the events outside the 100 backstroke.
The impressive part about the 'Cats securing so many first place finishes is that they jumbled their lineup around to try some new girls out at different events. Willhite, who's usually a staple of the 50 and 100 freestyle races, swam the 500 and 200 individual medley.
Brogan Lee, one of the state's best at the 500, got to save a little energy by swimming in the 50 and 100 freestyle.
"It was one of those meets where we had many kids swim in off events and it was just really fun," Wakefield explained.
The Wildcats swam the last two events exhibition to give Fridley a few extra points at the end of the meet.
True Team Meet
With a date with the rest of their sectional foes on tap for the weekend, the Wildcats knew it was going to be a wild day. Monticello brings one of the best swim teams in the state every year and Big Lake is always tough.
True team meets award thousands of points to teams based on their finishes in each race.
The first significant points of the meet came from the quartet of girls who swam in the 200 freestyle. Brogan Lee finished in second place with a 2:02.11, which earned the 'Cats 27 points. Thomi Lee, Hanna Lee and Rishawn Radziwill proceeded to finish sixth, seventh and ninth to earn the Wildcats a combined 65 points.
Willhite and Alex Thomsen earned another big chunk of points with a second and fourth place finish in the 50-yard freestyle.
"We started off swimming a little slow, but around the 50 freestyle or so, we started to pick it up," Wakefield said. "We have had a real string of meets and fatigue has been starting to show. We had five meets in less than two weeks and that really takes a toll on swimmers and divers alike."
The Wildcats made a big jump in the standings with their diving performance. With one of the better diving teams in the region, the top four girls finished first, third, fourth and sixth to earn 102 points for Chisago Lakes. Lindsay Carlson placed first with a score of 308.20, Thomsen came in third with her 296.75, Cassie Schlegel earned fourth with a 293.40 and Sam Thomsen earned sixth place with a 288.25. "The divers were just awesome on Saturday," Wakefield said simply.
Coming out of the diving event, the girls got another first place finish from Willhite in the 100 freestyle. She swam the race in 57.83 to earn 28 points for Chisago Lakes.
Brogan Lee kept the momentum swinging in Chisago Lakes' favor with a first place finish in the 500 freestyle in 5:17.19. The time was a pool record in Monticello, breaking the old record by almost three seconds. Thomi Lee also finished in fourth place in the 500.
A lot of the remaining points that the Wildcats tallied came from their relay teams. In the 200 freestyle relay, Willhite, Hanna Lee, Brogan Lee and Thomi Lee finished in second place with a time of 1:47.84. The finish gained 54 points for the team.
Araya Gamble, Michelle Haslach, Sarah Kopp and Radziwill finished fourth in that event, and that earned the Wildcats another 50 points for their total team score.
In the last event of the day, the Wildcats made another big move, putting two relay teams in the top five of the 400 freestyle relay. Brogan Lee, Thomi Lee, Thomsen and Willhite teamed up to win third place and 52 points for the 'Cats, and Gamble, Amanda Bean, Hanna Lee and Radziwill were the four parts of the fifth place team that earned 48 points.
The Wildcats ended the meet in third place with a total of 1,017.5 points. As expected, the Monticello Magic won the meet with 1,358 points. The Big Lake Hornets came in second place with 1,171.5 points.
Those three teams were the only ones to break the 1,000-point mark, as Princeton came in fourth place with 861.5 points, and Proctor/Hermantown had 839.5 in fifth place. Becker and Ogilvie rounded out the seven teams at the meet.
|
|
|
|
|