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Forest Lake swims away with victory
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Wednesday, 19 December 2007
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With the fun and casual Suburban East Conference Relays out of the way, the Forest Lake swimming and diving team opened the new season with a trip to Park on Dec. 13, and an invitation to compete at Blaine last Saturday.
“The Park meet was exciting all the way to the finish,” head swim coach Barb Vailodash said, after the boys picked up a 94-92 win.
“Many of the swimmers were on, or faster than, last years PBs (personal bests).
One of those was John Goossens, who started his season with a blazing 23:17 in the 50 freestyle, putting him in first. Goossens also took the top spot in the 100 free, and then teamed with Kevin Brennhofer, Frank O’Neil and Clint Krummi to take first in the 200 freestyle relay.
Peter Sandager stepped in for Brennhofer in the 400 free relay and that foursome went on to win that event.
Besides the two relay victories, Krummi also pocketed a first in the 100-yard backstroke.
At the Blaine Invitational, the Rangers had a chance to scout many of the schools in their section, and it’s a good thing the schedule says December and not February. Forest Lake came in sixth place with 205 points, while Anoka, Blaine and Coon Rapids all finished ahead of the Rangers.
“It was a great experience and eye-opener for the team to see three of our section opponents finish ahead of us. With Anoka, a new team this year, finishing second,” Vailodash noted. “We now see what we have up against us in the end.”
Diving
After the divers hit the water at Park, they ended up turning in a few personal best scores, so now head coach Deb Welch hopes the boys can build on those through the winter.
The Wolfpack’s top diver was out, which meant no one was going to challenge Forest Lake’s Jeff Isaacson and Connor Florand. Except each other.
Isaacson looked awfully smooth on a number of dives and racked up a personal best score of 217.15.
Florand ended up in second, and then teammate Jake Duffy made it a Ranger sweep by grabbing third (PB of 112.95).
In a similar experience as their swimming colleagues, the divers left Blaine with a new appreciation of what awaits them down the road.
“Yesterday was not all that we were hoping for,” Welch shared on Sunday, “but it gave us a heads-up on what we need to do to make our year-end goals a reality.”
The majority of the teams at the Blaine Invite were from Section 7AA, with the added bonus of Stillwater participating.
Isaacson reached the first cut in first place, but when his next three dives didn’t go as planned, he dropped down to fourth overall.
Florand ended the day in sixth place, and did so by totalling a personal best score (298.15) for 11 dives.
Duffy was able to make the initial cut-off, but not the second. He wound up out of the top 16, but he also pulled off another PB, with a score of 149.4.
Blaine Invite
Top 16 finishers: Eric Moris, Frank O’Neil, Josh Stomberg, Clint Krummi, John Goossens (second in the 50 freestyle), Kevin Brennhofer, Zach Curtis, Kevin Lalla, and the 200 free relay team (Stomberg, Brennhofer, O’Neil and Goossens took third).
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