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With a record number of participants at the state swimming and diving tournament this year, the Chisago Lakes Wildcats were hoping to improve on their 13th place finish from last year.

Although they didn't finish any higher -- coming in 13th place again -- they did score more team points, 71 this year compared to 64 last year. It was just a blazing fast meet this year. Eight swimming records were broken out of 11 events. "Boy, those were some fast Class A events," Head Coach Ed Wakefield said after the meet was over.

Sophomore Sam Thomsen was the first Wildcat to take the proverbial plunge, and she did so from the diving board in Thursday's diving preliminaries.

Thomsen stuck her first dive, but a hiccup in her second dive left her with work to do in the 11-dive routine. For the next six dives Thursday -- there is eight dives on Thursday and three during the finals on Saturday -- she slowly chipped away at the girls in front of her and moved up. By the end of the first day, Thomsen advanced to 10th place, within striking distance of a podium finish, which is the top eight divers.

With three difficult dives on Saturday, Thomsen was poised to move up in the standings. After an impressive first dive, Thomsen struggled to get enough air on her second dive, and didn't quite get the result she wanted. The low score bumped her back to 11th and left her with only one chance left to move up.

Her third dive was one of her best in the meet. She got enough air underneath herself and executed the dive. The only problem was that the top eight girls had put enough distance between themselves and the other divers that it was tough to close the gap. Thomsen did move back to 10th place, but just missed out on the podium in her first shot at state when she scored 306.25. Senior Chole Timm of Sauk Rapids-Rice won the event with a score of 438.65, including an astouding 110 points over her last two dives, when she scored 60 and 50 points.

"Sam was one good dive away from getting on the podium as a sophomore," Wakefield explained. "If anything, this meet showed how tough Sam is at this young of an age. After struggling with an early dive, she looked like she may even miss out on the first cut of the top 20 divers, but she fought back. It just makes her that much more ready for her next two years."

Amanda Bean was also making her debut for the Wildcats in the state tournament, as she had chopped two seconds off of her personal best in the 100 backstroke at sections to earn a shot at the state tournament.

Bean held steady on her time, swimming the preliminary race in 1:02.34, which left her in 10th place. But, with the baffling way the swimming state tournament works, she had no chance to move into the top eight. Even though places nine through 16 qualify for the finals, they can't move up past eighth, even if they swim faster than the girl who finishes in eighth place in the finals.

In the first heat of finals, Bean slowed down by just over a full second, and she dropped from 10th place to 13th place, besting Takina Kindle of Breck by just two-hundreths of a second. Although it was the senior's last meet as a Wildcat, she got to go out in style, among the best swimmers in the state tournament. Junior Caley Oquist of Monticello won the event in a Class A record time of 55.35 seconds.

"It was so awesome to see Amanda in the state tournament. She has worked so hard for years and was just dying to get there," Wakefield said. "After swimming such a fast time in sections, we knew it'd be hard to chop more time off of her backstroke, but she was able to hold her taper and it was phenomenal. It was huge for Amanda."

Hanna Lee and Heidi Willhite were also a part of the state tournament this year, also. Both seniors, Willhite was making her second consecutive appearance, but in different events than last year, and Lee was debuting. They both qualified, swimming with Brogan and Thomi Lee in the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

Both teams would need something special to happen in the state tournament, as neither one were seeded very high coming in. But, they both defied expectations, finishing in the top 16 in the preliminaries, assuring them of swimming in the finals.

In the 200 relay, the girls initially finished in 15th place in finals, but after two disqualifications, one to conference rival St. Louis Park and the other to section rival Sauk Rapids-Rice, the Wildcats were boosted up to 13th place.

In the 400 freestyle relay, the quartet got into the finals with the 16th seed at 3:48.66. Although they were able to knock a little time off in the finals, it wasn't enough to move them out of 16th place.

Wakefield was very impressed by Willhite's performance. "After she made it as an individual last year in two events, but missed out on them this year, she could've taken it as a bad thing that she was in as a part of relays," But she really wanted it and she swam very well throughout the meet."

With Thomsen, Bean and the relay teams all dancing in the finals, it was the sister combo of Brogan and Thomi Lee that really scored big points for Chisago Lakes. Not only were they both a part of the 200 and 400 relays, they both qualified for the tournament in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.

First on the docket for the sisters was the 200 freestyle. Brogan finished in seventh place in the event at the state tournament last year, and Thomi didn't qualify.

This year, Brogan moved up to fourth, swimming her preliminary race in 1:55.02, and then losing just a hint of time in her finals race, going 1:55.22. Both were phenomenal times, and she was bested only by some of the best swimmers in the state in Marisa Wood of Sartell-St. Stephen, Danielle Nack of Mankato West and Ashley Drazkowski of Monticello.

Thomi, who is only a freshman, finished in the unenviable ninth spot in prelims. She swam the first round in 1:57.60, which was under one second away from eighth place and a spot in the championship finals. Mackenzie Braden of Holy Family held on to the eighth spot with a time of 1:56.94, just over a half-second faster than Thomi.

Although she qualified ninth for the consolation finals, Thomi ended up finishing in 10th place after she dropped one-tenth of a second in her finals time.

The main event for the Lee's was the 500 freestyle. It is the best event for both of them, and although it was not likely that Brogan would win a state title -- Wood holds every important record in the 500 and is only a sophomore -- she wasn't far off after all the waves calmed.

Going into the state tournament, Brogan's goal was to finish under five minutes in the event, and after prelims, she was well on her way.

She finished the prelims in 5:02.44 as she earned the third seed behind Wood and Nack, but Wood only bested her by three seconds and Nack by one.

In the finals, it quickly turned into a three-horse race between Wood, Nack and Brogan. Although Brogan was in third in that race within the race, she wasn't backing down from the two.

Wood repeated, winning the state title again, as she broke the Class A record by swimming the 500 in 4:55.44. Nack came in second place, finishing in 4:58.82, which just barely edged out Brogan, who finished in 4:59.42 after a late surge.

Thomi, who was seeded sixth going into the finals after swimming a 5:13.89, finished seventh in the finals when Braden, who was seeded eighth going into the finals, chopped nearly five seconds off of her prelim time to finish ahead of her. Thomi still knocked a second off of her prelim time, finishing the race in 5:12.36.

Both Thomi and Brogan were the first girls in Chisago Lakes history to swim in four events at the state tournament, and Thomi was the youngest girl to ever qualify for more than one event in CL history.

Brogan, who was on the heels of her Section Swimmer of the Year Award, closed out her high school career with her head held high, despite four state tournament medals from the past two years weighing it down. "It has been just awesome having a girl like Brogan in the program," Wakefield said. "A lot fo the younger girls look up to her. She's the first one in the pool and is always busting her butt and swimming hard. The young girls see that and see whats supposed to go on in the pool. Plus, Brogan has really reaped the rewards of that hard work.

With Willhite, Hanna Lee, Bean and Brogan Lee all graduating, the Wildcats will have plenty of holes to fill in the offseason, but with Thomi Lee and Thomsen coming back, plus plenty of swimmers who have been influenced by this batch of seniors, things still look exciting in the Chisago Lakes swimming and diving future.

Above, Brogan Lee gets off to a quick start in the 500 freestyle. Below, starting clockwise from bottom right, sisters Brogan and Thomi Lee pose with their dual medals after their third and seventh place finishes in the 500 freestyle. Thomi Lee congratulates an opponent after the 200 freestyle prelims. Sam Thomsen gets airborne for one of her dives on the first day. Amanda Bean flies through the prelim backstroke race, just missing out on the championship finals. Heidi Willhite readies for her opening leg in the 200 freestyle relay. Hanna Lee opens up the 400 freestyle relay with a bang.

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