Winhawks Soar to 4th at Section 1A Finals

Article written by: Head Coach Chris Mayer "We began the meet with the 200 medley. We weren't sure how this event would go, and all we really wanted to see was a slight improvement for the guys. They were seeded 8th and that is where they remained, but they dropped a little time to start the meet off on the right foot! The 200 free saw Riley seeded 9th in the consolation heat. Riley knew that it was a go big or go home moment and he certainly went big! Riley took the swim out faster than he'd ever swim a 100 before, in 54.2, but it might have been just a little too quick because he struggled a little bit on the back half of the race. He finished in 12th, but he was happy with the swim. Griffin, going into his race seeded second, finished in the same spot. He did have a little issue - seeing! I was watching him swim and zigzag around his lane like he had no clue what he was doing. Sure enough, his cap came down over his goggles too far and he couldn't see exactly where he was in the water. Still, he swam a great race, finished second, and is heading to State next weekend! The 200im saw Yousef drop half a second in his race. Coming from a guy that struggles to dolphin kick and flutter kick, he performed incredibly well! Now... if we could only get those feet to kick correctly! Grant came into the 200im seeded 5th and we knew if he could drop a little he'd be in contention to make the state cut. Sure enough, he had a great race, knocks the socks off everyone in the breaststroke to catch up and over take second place, and just gets out-touched at the finish to take 3rd and make the state cut! The 50 free saw our young gun Jack take on the elders of the section! He added just a little bit of time but still swam a fantastic race and will hopefully come back next season to be the dominant sprinter in the section! Diving went well. Although the guys struggled a little, the 4 of them had a great meet and Derrick will be heading to state next weekend after finishing 3rd! Sam, Kenneth and Devon will hopefully be back next year and will have some more experience under their belt to come back into this meet and dive well! The 100 free saw Brady and Jack in the consolation heat. Jack dropped a little bit of time and moved up one spot, while Brady added a little bit of time and moved up a spot as well! Looks like we're going to have some great sprinters on the team for the future! The 500 was a great event. Tanner took out his consolation heat like a man with something to prove! He turned in one of his fastest 100 times, he turned in his fastest 200 time, but struggled just a little on the back half of his event and added just over a second to finish 15th. Riley, again came to this race with something to prove. He didn't take out the race too fast, but sat passively behind the leaders and kept his pace under control. He needed to drop 4 seconds from his prelims and he was on pace up until the 300. He gave the back half a very good effort, but he just missed the state cut and finished the event in 5th place! Grif swam a very controlled race, leading from the beginning, and won the event with a time just below his prelim time. He'll head to State next weekend to really go after a race and we'll see what he can do! The 200 free relay was a bittersweet event. The guys got up and swam the best they possibly could. In the end, they missed the state cut by .3 . Each one of them wanting to go faster, but each one of them proud that they were there together and gave it their best effort! They finished in 6th, moving up one spot. The backstroke saw Tanner attack his race and he dropped .7 to finish in 12th place, another great race for him! Brady, who was in the finals heat, had a good race and even though he added just a little bit of time, he finished among the best of the section and will have a very bright future in the event! Yousef dropped from his seed time and had a great race, almost getting to the 106's! Grant, who had been focusing on his breaststroke, went out with the leaders and came back with them as well. He had one little slip up at the end, but swam an incredible race and finished 4th in the event. He'll be back next year to contend for the win of the event! The end of the meet, the 4x100 free relay saw us go after another state cut. The guys gave an incredible effort. All 4 of them swam their hearts out in efforts to get to state. In the end, they came up just a little short, missing state by about 2 seconds. It's tough to miss a cut time when you're so close! We ended the meet in 4th place!! We have competed against most of these teams all season. In most of those meets, we finished behind these teams. We lost a dual meet vs Red Wing, and we tied Austin. At Section True Team, we placed 7th with the same teams. This week we finished ahead of some of those other teams and our incredible season ends with our team finishing among the best in the Section! This was such a great meet for our guys. They took on the best and finished among them."