The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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  • Jim Rueda

    swimming at state

November 18, 2009

Scarlets, Saints poised for busy state meet

West swimmers to compete in seven events at state, St. Peter eight

By Jim Rueda

MANKATO — It’s unlikely that Mankato West coach Dave Burgess and St. Peter coach Mary Lager compared notes before designing tapers for their respective swim teams this fall but whatever each coach did, it worked.

Both teams had swimmers drop large amounts of time at last week’s Section 1A Meet in Austin and they have the state qualifiers to prove it. The Scarlets qualified swimmers to state in seven events while St. Peter did the same in eight events.

That means both coaches should be pretty busy throughout the three-day Class A State Meet which begins Thursday.

“I’d have to say our taper was very successful this year,” Burgess said this week. “Every one of our swimmers dropped time and, in almost every case, it was a significant amount of time.”

Lager said her squad did the same thing. In fact, the Saints came away from Friday’s section finals having set school records in five events — the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, the 100-backstroke, and the 400-free relay.

“Our taper was amazing this year,” Lager said. “We dropped a ton of time.”

The Saints also won two section championships last week. Ashley Lager won the backstroke in the 1:01.26 and Kaitlin Kamm was the section champ in the 50-freestyle in 23.97. Kamm goes into the state meet with the fastest time of any section qualifiers.

Kamm also qualified in the 100-freestyle (53.25) and with two relay teams. Joining her on the 200-medley relay will be Ashley Lager, Hannah Frey and Raunatta Hill. Accompanying her on the 200-free relay will be Ashley Lager, Carolyn Conlon, and Hill.

The Saints also qualified its 400-free relay to state. The four relay members are Ashley Lager, Conlon, Hill and Casey Rezmerski

Hill has also qualified in the 50-freestyle and teammate Alissa Lager is back to compete in diving. Alissa Lager placed sixth in last year’s Class A meet and goes in with the fifth-highest point total (368.25) this year.

Eighth-grader Danielle Nack will be Mankato West’s busiest swimmer this weekend. She has qualified in the 200-freestyle (1:59.09), the 500-freestyle (5:20.56) and with two relay teams.

Joining her on the 200-medley relay will be Mariah Chesley, Taylor Bacon and Emily Sneer. Nack, Bacon, Sneer, and Danielle Decock also qualified in the 400-free relay.

West’s 200-free relay team of Decock, Sneer, Bacon and Nicole Lohman has also qualified.

The remaining individual qualifiers for the Scarlets are Chesley in the 100-backstroke (1:04.22), Bacon in the 50-freestyle (25.16) and Emma Abrahamson in the 200-freestyle (1:57.94).

Sneer, a senior, says one of her team’s goals at state is to re-break the school record in the 400-free relay that she and her teammates broke in the section finals (3:42.63). She also wants to see the Scarlets advance as many swimmers to the second day of competition as possible.

Bacon, the only other West senior going to state, says trying to get all three relays into the top eight is her No. 1 priority. The 400-free relay probably has the best shot.

The Class A competition gets underway at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center with a noon diving session on Thursday. It continues with a noon swimming session Friday, and concludes with the noon swimming and diving finals Saturday.

Tickets are $8 per session for both adults and students. For more information, log on to www.mshsl.org.

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