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After a precarious start to the section meet for the Chisago Lakes girls swimming and diving team, they recovered nicely for many personal records, and a few section championships.

The meet couldn't have got off to a worse start for the Wildcats when their 200-yard medley quartet was disqualified following an early jump.

With such a narrow gap between the 'Cats, who finished in fifth place in the section meet, and Foley, who finished in third place, any place in that event would've been enough for Chisago Lakes to leap to third place in the section.

Although that swim didn't go their way, the Wildcats bounced back in the very next event. CL's catalyst, Brogan Lee, shaved three seconds off of her preliminary time in the 200-yard freestyle. Her 1:59.68 placed her in second and sent her to the state meet in that event, along with four other swimmers from the section. "We have such a fast section," Head Coach Ed Wakefield explained. "Only the top two girls make it to state, along with any others who swim a qualifying time. And to have five swimmers in one event is pretty amazing."

Sophomore Heidi Willhite was this close to joining Lee at the state meet in the 50-yard freestyle. She set a personal record in the event in the finals at 25.66, but it put her in fourth place overall. The qualifying cut off time is 25.41. She missed the cut by a quarter of a second.

Although Willhite fell just short in her first event, junior Alex Thomsen made good on her opportunity on the diving board. With Logan Jensen, last year's section champion, returning, Thomsen and her cohorts had a lot of work to do to dethrone the senior from Duluth Central.

Thomsen rode a first place semi-final score to the championship and she never looked behind her, winning the event by nearly 20 points.

Willhite then had another tough break in the 100-yard freestyle swim. After finishing the prelims in third place with a qualifying time of 55.67, Willhite battled her way through the finals after the disappointment in the 50 free, but she just couldn't get going fast enough to qualify, finishing in fifth place with a 56.46. The cut-off was at 55.92. "Heidi swam out of her mind on Friday in the prelims," Wakefield said. "She just learned a lesson. She's only a sophomore. She'll get better."

The next event was Lee's bread and butter. The 500-yard freestyle. The test of endurance has been her strongest suit all year. "Brogan swam a 5:24 in prelim, and felt like she could've gone much faster," Wakefield noted. "That was very nice to hear."

And not only did she swim faster, she smashed the pool record set in the prelims. Ashley Drazkowski of Monticello had broken the Grand Rapids pool record in the prelims with a 5:23.51, but Lee blew past Drazkowski in the finals, finishing in 5:15.09 and winning the championship. "Brogan swam like crazy. Most of the year, she has been swimming two-a-days, swimming for us and then for the club team," Wakefield said. "And it's paying off."

Seventh grader Thomi Lee also placed in the event, finishing in 5:48.88 in eighth place.

In the 200-yard freestyle, the four 'Cats again narrowly missed another shot at a state tournament berth. Araya Gamble, Hanna Lee, Brogan Lee and Willhite swam their tails off to finish in fourth place, and they were less than two seconds off of finishing in second place.

In the final event of the sectionals, the team of Brogan Lee, Amanda Bean, Hanna Lee and Willhite earned some final points to ensure themselves a fifth place finish. The four finished in fifth place in 3:52.80, which was only two seconds out of first place.

Without the points, the Wildcats would've also finished behind the Becker Bulldogs in the final tallies.

As expected, state powerhouse Monticello took the 5A section championship. Their 513.5 points was head and shoulders above anyone else in the field.

Big Lake finished in second place with a 297. Those were the only two teams that were out of the Wildcats' reach.

Foley, who finished in third place with 223.5, and Princeton, who came in at fourth place with 221 just edged out Chisago Lakes, who ended the weekend with 205 points.

"A lot of girls cut their times just in time for sections," Wakefield said. "We felt we maybe could've gone a little faster, but it was a good event for most of the girls." He added a tidbit for other 500-freestyle swimmers to take in, "Brogan has been tapering for state, not for sections, so she's got more left in her."

With the section meet wrapped up, it's on to state for Brogan Lee and Thomsen. The meet is this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-22. Thomsen and the rest of the divers take to the board for their prelims on Thursday beginning at noon. Lee will dip into the pool at noon on Friday for her two prelims. Diving and swimming finals will be held on Saturday. All events take place at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

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