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Chisago Lakes 96, Spring Lake Park 81

"On paper this should have been a much closer meet," Swimming and diving Head Coach Mark Nordby said after his charges blew the Panthers out of the water. "Spring Lake has put up some good times this season, but it seemed we got into their heads early in the meet and they had no response."

The Wildcats got out to an early start in the first four events. Sam Engel, Avery Turman, Al Vrudny and Mitch Gebauer finished in first place in the 200 medley with at ime of 1:51.48, just barely beating the second place team from SLP, who finished in 1:51.62. Joey Eikens, James Falkowski, Konnor Doble and David Lange pulled out a third place finish, and just like that, it was 10-4 in favor of Chisago Lakes.

Ryan Smith, Eric Barnes and Jacob Ewert stretched that lead to 14 when they went one-two-four in the 200 freestyle.

After that, it seemed Spring Lake Park was mentally checked out and the Wildcats were already ready to put the pedal to the metal and finish the Panthers off early.

Despite not getting the winner in the 200 individual medley, Turman, Vrudny and Beau Hawkinson went two-three-four to still outscore the Panthers in the event.

Eikens, Gebauer and Matt Mattson kept the hit parade going, finishing one-three-four in the 50 freestyle and piling the points on.

In diving, the score finally started to get out of hand since the Panthers only feature one diver as opposed to the Wildcats full complement of divers. Gebauer, Jake Doble and Jake Carlson went one-two-three to stretch the lead from 22 points to 33. Both Doble and Carlson's totals were personal bests for them.

Over the next four events, Chisago Lakes just kept adding to their lead, as Spring Lake Park was never able to actually come out ahead in points in any event.

Engel took the top spot in the 100 butterfly, Mattson came out on top in the 100 freestyle, Smith won the 500 freestyle, and the team of Smith, Gebauer, Lange and Mattson won the 200 freestyle relay.

By that time, the margin was 53 at 96-43 points and Nordby began swimming his competitors in exhibition. They were still competing against the Panthers, but all the points were awarded to Spring Lake Park, no matter the finish. Engel and Falkowski ended up finishing first in the next two events, as well as a first place finish from Smith, Barnes, Lange and Mattson in the 400 freestyle, but because of the exhibition, the final score was 96-81. Engel's time of 1:01.46 in the backstroke dropped two seconds off of his personal best and put him in second place in the whole conference in the event.

"We took first in every event except 200 IM which we outscored them 9-7 in anyway," Nordby explained. "After diving we were up 55-22 and we just kept on the gas. By the 200 free relay, we had already scored enough points 96-43 to secure the win so we went exhibition for the rest of the meet."

Nordby was complimentary of many of his swimmers after the meet, as he was thoroughly impressed with the thrashing they had just handed a Spring Lake Park team that could've been a real challenge.

"Eric Barnes swam a personal best in the 100 free," he said. "Eric could swim as a middle distance 200-500 guy, but right now we need his speed in the 100 and 200. He trains hard and his times will really drop at the end of the season.

"Jake Ewert swam a near personal best in the 200 and swam a persona best in the 500 free to finish in second place," he said. "Even though Jake is just a ninth grader, he's training like a veteran and his times are coming down."

Aaron Wiger also set a personal best in the backstroke, swimming a 1:09.31. "Aaron's really starting to figure out that backstroke," Nordby said. "He was a breaststroke specialist last year but an unfortunate knee injury in baseball has him know focused on back. That's a good thing for the team as we need good backstrokers and have several solid in the breast."

With the dominating victory, Nordby is getting excited for the bulk of the season coming up, including some important North Suburban Conference dates. "The guys are gaining confidence in their events now that we've been into our heavy training," he said. "As I tell the guys, 'Racing is a reflection of your hard work in practice. How you train, is how you race.'"

This week will test how well the guys have trained, as they have three meets this week. "I don't like to schedule that many meets but the True Team Section Meet schedule didn't come out until after we had committed to Princeton." They swam on Tuesday at home against Princeton and have Cooper on Thursday afternoon at 4:30 in New Hope and True Team at Minneapolis Edison on Saturday, Jan. 22 at noon.

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