Schlegel qualifies for state tournament, finishes in 29th place in diving prelims

Courtney Schlegel was determined to return to the state tournament this year, and her hard work eventually paid off when she finished in fourth place in the Section 4A diving finals. She got the trip to the tourney with a score of 322.30, and that fourth place finish earned her 15 points for the Wildcats as a team.

At the state tournament on Monday, November 18, Schlegel was going need to be near perfect to compete with some of the divers. Although she didn’t quite stick some of her moves, she still managed a 29th place finish in the Class A State Tournament. She scored 107.85 points over five dives, leaving her ahead of Erin Voigt over St. Cloud Apollo, BryAnna Paulson of Milaca and Abbie Gieslinger for Grand Rapids. Bailey DuPay of Northfield was in first place after the prelims with a score of 178.55. She is the defending state champ in Class A in the event. 

Swimming Prelims at State Tournament 
The swimming preliminaries were held Tuesday, November 19 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. Things went mostly par for the course for the Chisago Lakes competitors at the meet. Thomi Lee, who qualified in the 200, 500 and the anchor leg in the 400 free relay, had a strong day. In her first event, the 200 free, Lee was seeded second going into the tourney behind Mankato West’s Chantal Nack. Lee ended up third after the prelims, sticking to her seed time, finishing the race in 1:54.89. Her seed coming in was 1:54.65. Nack, who was the top seed heading in, finished the prelims in second with a time of 1:54.00. The girl who pushed them both down a spot was Elisa Burgstahler of Dassel-Cokato. Burgstahler had a seed time of 1:55.78 going in, but finished in a blazing-fast 1:53.57.

In the 500 free, where Lee is the defending state champion, she made an early statement even though it was only prelims. Nack was in the second heat and swam a 5:08.08, but she knew that time would easily move her to the finals, so it wasn’t a surprise that she didn’t go terribly fast. However, Lee, knowing the times she had to beat to get the first choice of lanes, blasted past Nack’s time. She finished the third heat of the prelims with a 5:03.63 with no one in particular pushing her. Kylie Vermeire of Marshall was second in Lee’s heat with a time of 5:15.90.

Lee ended up finishing in second place in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events to Nack. For a full story on the finals, check out next week's issue of the Chisago County press.

Lee did have one more event on the day, anchoring the 400 free relay that finished in 22nd place for the Wildcats. The foursome also included Danielle Smythe, Kalli Jo Olson and Dani Berg. The quartet was in a tough spot being seeded low among the state qualifiers, and they had just shaved 17 seconds off of their personal best two weeks ago. They weren’t able to drop that time any more, finishing in 3:52.49 after qualifying with a time of 3:49.39. However, qualifying for the meet was a big accomplishment for the girls, and with three of the four swimmers back next year, including two that are only freshmen, they look to be in good shape to make a move up the leaderboard next year.