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Swimmers and divers piling up personal bests
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Wednesday, 09 January 2008
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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Just when it seemed like the Forest Lake swim team was taking it easy, the boys cranked out three meets in a matter of seven days. And the results were all positive.
Before hosting Roseville on Jan. 3, and taking part in the Maroon & Gold Invitational on Saturday, the Rangers also had a Dec. 29 meet against Elk River.
Forest Lake took that one, 89.50 to 80.5, behind what head swim coach Barb Vailodash called, “Spectacular swimming by all members.”
In the diving portion of the meet, Jeff Isaacson earned second place, while teammate Connor Florand took third, with a personal best (PB) score of 203.20. The Rangers’ Matt Goossens came in fourth, with a PB of his own, at 193.25.
“We were happy to be diving against someone who had some experience, so we could get a gauge on what we need to work on,” head diving coach Deb Welch noted.
It didn’t take very long, but apparently the work paid off.
When Forest Lake hosted Roseville last Thursday, Welch saw all three of those divers score over 200 points, even while they inserted some new dives.
The order was the same as Elk River, but with each diver moving up a slot.
Isaacson was first, with a total of 214.7 points; Florand was close behind with a new personal best at 213.65; and Goossens notched yet another PB, coming in third with 211.05 points.
“That’s the second clean sweep for the divers,” Welch said. “All three boys bounced back and forth for that first place position, with one dive after another just getting better and better until the very last dive.”
With the help of the divers, Forest Lake would win the meet, 102 to 84.
“Many of the swimmers continue to drop time and swim faster than last year’s PBs,” Vailodash added.
At the Maroon & Gold meet on Jan. 5, the swimmers and divers were dealing with a whole new level of competition.
The Rangers competed in the Maroon Division, where the boys would finish in ninth place, with 604 points.
“Only 15 points behind our new section team, Anoka,” Vailodash said. “The whole team swam amazing times.”
For the divers, they had to deal with a total of 29 participants and an invitation environment, where the scores are generally lower.
“While the scores were basically low, the divers we saw there were top notch,” Welch shared.
Forest Lake ended up with Florand sneaking past his teammate for seventh, while Isaacson came in eighth. Goossens cracked the top half of the standings and finished in 13th place.
“I would say that we hit about half of our dives,” Welch said, “and the other half were a little under our normal outcome.”
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