The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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    St. Peter swimming

November 21, 2009

Kamm shines for Saints at state

St. Peter sophomore reaches finals in 50-yard freestyle at state swim meet

By Jim Rueda

MINNEAPOLIS — A change of her cap and goggles, a long listen to “Your Love” by The Outfield on her iPod, and a vigorous shake of her hands makes St. Peter sophomore Kaitlin Kamm good to go.

Kamm, who admits to being very superstitious, says she never varies that routine before taking to the water. Her ritual served her well Friday afternoon at the Class A state girls swim meet as she found herself in the finals of the 50-yard freestyle at the U of M Aquatic Center.

The sophomore went into the competition tied for first in the 50-free with Amanda Paulson of Monticello. They both had a seed time of 23.97.

Paulson is now second after the prelims with a 23.71 while Kamm is third with a 24:14.

“Third is a good position,” Kamm said. “If I can drop some time (Saturday) I should be OK.”

The sophomore said having the top time going in added some pressure, but she has ways of dealing with it.

“I just remind myself why I'm doing this,” she said. “It's not to make my parents happy or to make my coach happy, I'm doing it for me.”

Kamm also competed in the 100-freestyle where she placed 15th in the prelims with a time of 54.83. Teammate Raunatta Hill competed in three events for the Saints and made it to the second day in one of them. She joined with Ashley Lager, Carolyn Conlon and Kamm to place ninth in the 200-free relay in 1:42.00.

Hill, a senior who qualified for state in an individual event for the first time this season, said she wasn't looking for any spectacular times at state.

She ended up 25th in the 50-free in 26.24.

“My goal was to get here,” she said. “Once I did that, I just wanted to swim as fast as I could and help the relays any way possible.”

The Saints’ Lager qualified for the finals in the 100-backstroke, turning in a seventh-place time of 1:01.78. St. Peter was also 19th in the 200-medley relay as Lager, Kamm, Hannah Frey and Hill recorded a 1:56.01. The Saints' 400-free relay team of Casey Rezmerski, Hill, Conlon and Lager placed 20th in 3:52.50.

In addition to Kamm in the 50- and 100-free, Lager in the backstroke and the 200-free relay team, the Saints will be represented in today's competition by junior Alissa Lager in the 1-meter dive. She qualified on Thursday by placing eighth in the prelims with a score of 234.80 points.

The Class A meet concludes with a noon session today at the U of M aquatic center.

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