December 1, 2008 at 1:14 p.m.
Lee and Thomsen both earn podium finishes at state swim and dive meet
Points earned by the young pair propel the Wildcats to a 19th place team finish
Lee and Thomsen both earn podium finishes at state swim and dive meet
The junior diver began the state diving competition as just another competitor among the 32 trying to earn her stripes. But, by the end of the first round of dives, everyone in the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center knew her name.
It was easy to know her name since it was sitting atop the leaderboard after the initial round of five dives on Thursday afternoon. "I was just so happy with her attitude,"?Head Diving Coach Lisa Willhite said. "She was just kind of sitting by the pool and relaxing leading up to her dives. She wasn't stressed out or nervous at all, and that's big since she is only a junior."
Later in the night, however, Thomsen dropped down in the standings to sixth place after the next three dives. Not only did she slightly miss on some dives, other competitors stepped their game up to catch her.
After the first day of eight dives was done, Thomsen had accumulated 216.05 points. Although it left her far from Tori Raihle's 246.30, the pack thickened from second place to sixth place. She was only four points from Ashley Thorldahl's 221, who sat in second place.
In the diving finals, with the field whittled down to 16, Thomsen came up with some phenomenal dives, but some of the other divers delivered astounding performances that vaulted them past Thomsen.
In the end, Thomsen finished in seventh place with a total of 293.95.?She was only out of sixth place by seven points. Raihle, a sophomore from Spring Lake Park, ran away with the meet with a 350.5.
The finish earned the Wildcats 12 team points in the overall standings and a boatload of experience for Thomsen for her senior year of swimming and diving.
In the swimming events, sophomore phenom Brogan Lee captured a fifth place medal in the 500-yard freestyle, and just barely missed out on the podium in the 200-yard freestyle.
In her first qualifying event, the 200, Lee took to the pool in search of a top eight finish. Although the 200 isn't her strongest race, a top eight finish in the preliminaries would gaurantee her a spot on the podium and more points for the Wildcats.
Swimming in the fourth and final heat, Lee knew what time she would have to get to qualify for the top eight, and she nearly earned it, but fell just a hair short. Her time of 1:59.91 left her in ninth place as the only non-qualifier to swim a sub-two minute race.
She was on the outside looking in, but not all was lost. She still had a chance to earn points for the team by swimming in the consolation finals the next day, and she also had her strongest event, the grueling 500-yard freestyle on the horizon.
Lee made sure to qualify in the 500-yard freestyle, hitting 5:17.91 in the the preliminaries. The time put her in sixth place overall and in the finals with seven other girls the next day.
On the second day of the tournament, Lee's gas tank needed to be replenished for her two final races. First up on the day was the 200-yard freestyle consolation round. Lee was the top seed, having finished ninth in the preliminaries.
Although Lee swam faster than she had the day before, finishing in 1:59.15, Grace Moores of Cloquet-Esko shaved a monumental two seconds off her prelim time and surpassed Lee with a time of 1:58.54. The sophomore had to settle for ninth place, but that still earned the Wildcats seven more valuable points on the team board.
In her bread and butter race, Lee was seeded sixth. Although it was a very steep obstacle to try and catch the top-seeded Marissa Wood of Sartell-St. Stephen, the other four girls were within Lee's short reach.
In the first couple laps, Lee set a good pace, trailing only?Wood, but keeping up with McKenna Jones and Alissa Tinklenberg, who were in second and third, respectively.
As the race wore on, however, senior Krystal Carlson of Richfield used her saavy swimming moves and experience to manuever past Lee. In the end, it was a battle between Lee and senior Heather Crandall of Hill Murray for fifth place. Lee just edged out the more experienced swimmer, finishing in 5:17.43. Crandall touched the wall in 5:17.57.
Wood won the event with a new Class A record time of 5:02.05. She blasted the competition, as the next to touch was Jones in 5:11.94.
The 14 points were huge for the Wildcats. It moved them a couple pegs up the ladder of teams muddled in the mid-teens. It also provided the narrow difference between Chisago Lakes finishing in the top 20, or not finishing in the top 20. CL came in at 33 points, and Richfield and Benilde-St.?Margaret's each had 32 points.
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