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The Wildcat swimmers and divers, in their first home meet of the season, defeated Fridley 106-74 Thursday, January 3. "It was nice to get a win at home in front of a large crowd," said Wildcat head coach Mark Nordby.

"We had some really tough winter break practices and several team members had some nice time drops as a result. Alex Lundberg had four personal bests and is just beginning to really tap into the speed he possesses," Nordby commented.

Lundberg won the 100 backstroke in 1:02.75 and took second in the 200 individual medley in 2:23.54. He also led off the medley relay by completing his leg in 28.89. Tom McGurk, Kevin Roggemann and Ethan Karwand completed the IM in a first place time of 1:50.60.

"Our 'B' relay took second place in a time of 2:01.85 with Clinton LaGrander, John Harwell, David Donahue and Cody Gralish picking up the four points," the Wildcat coach said.

"In the 200 Freestyle, Ryan Smith showed that his training is paying off by going 2:08.92, which is a six second drop off of his previous best before break." Smith's time was good for second place as he edged out a Fridley swimmer by four hundreths of a second. In the same race, Steve Larsen posted a personal best time of 2:16.79, giving him fourth place.

Kevin Roggemann dominated the 100 fly race with a winning time of 1:01.52, nearly six seconds ahead of Chisago Lakes' second place finisher David Donahue, who missed nearly three weeks of training recovering from a dislocated kneecap.

"It's great to have David on the team and training again. He has good underwater speed and will be needed in the fly and 100 backstroke," Nordby commented. "His 1:10.07 backstroke really surprised the team and himself. It will be fun watching David lower his times and very interesting to see how low he can take both of those event times."

Brody Heggerston came from behind to give the Wildcats a win in the 100 freestyle in a personal best time of 54.64. "Brody has been working hard on his freestyle and, I think, could really be a solid state meet competitor by the end of February," Nordby said.

All three Wildcat distance swimmers had season or personal best times in the 500 freestyle. Andrew Jokinen took a hard-fought second place finish with a time of 5:56.27. Smith was fourth in 6:02.80 and Steve Larsen had a personal best of 6:27.16.

"In the 100 back, our depth is coming through as we took first (Alex Lundberg), third (Clinton LaGrander 1:11.17) and Alex Vitalis fourth place with a 1:13.08 finish. "Alex showed some real guts as he had been sick with a fever the day before the meet and still managed a personal best time. He was feeling better during the meet, but I know he wasn't at 100 percent. He showed some real toughness and heart.

"John Harwell had a nice second place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a personal best time of 1:12.66 to Tom McGurk's first place finish of 1:08.89." Nordby continued. "John and Tom are training extremely well. They do every bit of yardage expected of them in practice and are a force to be reckoned with in the 100 breast. By the end of the season, their hard work is really going to pay off huge with big drops of time."

The Wildcats head to Columbia Heights Thursday, January 10 for a 6:00 meet. "I will probably change the lineup around quite a bit. It's good to take a break from their normal events and sometimes find out that a swimmer actually has another event which they could help the team out at sectionals," Nordby concluded.

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