January 10, 2013 at 8:46 a.m.
It’s not often that a swim meet ends in a tie, but the Chisago Lakes boys swimming and diving team had a dramatic North Suburban Conference match with St. Louis Park come down to the last event in their first meet of the new year. The meet was as back-and-forth as one can get with six lead changes and three ties in 12 events. “This was one of the best swim meets we had in recent years where two teams were slugging it out, trading jabs, and in the end, it came out a draw,” Head Coach Mark Nordby said after the tough meet -- which doubled as the first NSC meet the Wildcats hadn’t won straight out in the last three years. “What a great meet to witness. I told the St. Louis Park coach that we should go ask double the entrance fee from the fans as it was quite a show we put on for them.” The Wildcats took the first lead of the meet when they won the first two events, but the origins of the tie were established in the second event.
A rare tie in third place split the event points between CL and St. Louis Park. Both Wildcat Andrew Gombold and Oriole Nils Rykken, two eighth graders, touched the wall in 2:04.45 in the 200 freestyle, In the four lane pool at SLP, that meant the third place finisher got one point, and that one point was split among the teams. The Wildcats held the lead until the 50 yard freestyle. The Orioles finished one-two in that event, besting Konnor Doble and Eric Barnes in the event by fractions of a second. The event seemed to be a microcosm of how close the meet as a whole was. SLP’s Greg Jacobs and Phil Kersten finished in 24.68 and 24.76 seconds, respectively, while Doble and Barnes finished in 24.81 and 24.89, respectively. Two events later, in the 100 freestyle, Chisago Lakes had retaken the lead when Jake Ewert and Avery Turman finished one-two in the event. They had followed a strong showing from CL’s butterflies.
“Our butterflyers got things rocking in the second half. We missed a few points earlier in the meet so that was a great way to get the momentum back,” Nordby said. “Both Riley Darling and Derek Frank had personal bests.” The lead was short-lived, however. The Orioles took seven points in the next event leaving the meet at 29.5-27.5 in favor of SLP. Chisago Lakes wasn’t having any of that when they entered the pool for the next event. It was the 200 freestyle relay and the two quartets swimming for CL burned through the race and finished one-two for a 9-1 advantage in the event and a 36.5-30.5 advantage overall in the meet. The foursomes were Barnes, Turman, Doble and Ewert and Riley Darling, Nate Braski, Jake Doble and Aaron Wiger. “Another big swing came in the 200 Free Relay. We thought we had enough speed to go one-three but to go one-two and have the both relays under 1:40 is pretty solid,” Nordby said. St. Louis Park pulled even in the 100 backstroke, earning first and second place while CL just grabbed the single third place point, leaving the meet at 37.5-37.5 with two events left.
The ‘Cats got the inside edge on the win when James Falkowski finished first in the 100 breast stroke while Braski finished in third, giving them a two point lead heading into the 400 free relay. Unfortunately for CL, the top St. Louis Park foursome out-touched the top Wildcat team as they were saving their four fastest swimmers for the event, but the ‘Cats did get the second and third place spots with some phenomenal effort, which ensured them at least the tie and kept their NSC unbeaten streak alive. “It all came down to the last relay. I knew they had saved their four fastest guys for that relay and on paper, they were 15 seconds faster than us,” Nordby explained. “Our guys fought hard and ended up second and third. But, our A relay dropped from 3:53 down to 3:38 and our B relay dropped about 12 seconds. From an effort standpoint, the guys laid it all out there.” The meet was difficult to gauge from the beginning because of the antiquated four lane pool and lack of diving board that St. Louis Park has.
Chisago Lakes prides itself on its depth and has traditionally had a strong diving program, so both of those strengths are nullified when the meet takes place in SLP. “We had some great performances and guys really stepped up to the challenge,” Nordby said proudly. “Jake Ewert shined the whole night for us. His four personal bests for the night contributed to several points.” Despite the tie, Nordby was still thrilled with the efforts and results at the meet. “This is one meet the guys will remember,” he said.
Comments:
Commenting has been disabled for this item.