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Talking about the State Swim Meet, Wildcat boys' head coach Jim Sauerbry said, "If the boys hadn't swum so fast at sections, they would have been thrilled with their times. However, that was the case."

Eight CL athletes competed at the State Swimming and Diving Meet at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Because of last-minute weather related schedule changes, the diving prelims and finals were held Thursday, March 1 and the swimming events took place Saturday, March 3.

"We didn't hold our speed a week after the taper," Sauerbry explained. "It was exciting, thinking that we needed a bus to take the kids to the meet, usually we all fit into one car.  So having kids in eight of the 12 events was a success." 

Sauerbry highlighted his athletes' performances in those eight events:

Medley Relay - Second fastest time of the year - 1:45.36.  12th place.  No personal best splits. Everyone was just a little off, and, as usual, that became the theme of the meet.

50 Freestyle - Hunter (Heggerston) was three tenths off his section time, going 22.6.  That moved him to 10th. The 22.3 (from sections) would have placed him seventh or eighth.  That is an amazing race. The top 16 prelim times were all in the 22's.

100 Butterfly - The hardest race to hold a week after taper. It takes such strength and conditioning.  Kevin (Roggemann) ended up in 18th place, but needs to remember, he's only in 10th grade.

100 Freestyle - Heggerston again was only a few tenths off of his best time. But, that time difference moved him from ninth to 12th.

200 Freestyle Relay - Set another school record beating the section record time by two hundredths of a second, placing 15th.

Backstroke - John Donahue, for the first time in a long time, didn't break his own record, but kept the time under one minute, placing 18th.

Breast Stroke - McGurk had an especially hard time, not only did he miss Thursday and Friday, but was sick and missed Wednesday practice as well. Swam the first half of the race as fast as he has gone, but couldn't come back as fast as he needed to medal.    Ended up in 13th.

Diving - Andy Willhite placed ninth overall, our highest place.

"We ended up in 19th.  It might take a week or so to realize that we accomplished what we set out to do, getting so many kids to the state meet.  I felt that if we didn't taper for sections, they might not qualify,

"We had a great season.  I have a wonderful hard working group of kids, many of whom will be returning next year.  I'd like to thank the parents for the great support, also," Sauerbry concluded.

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