Head-first into season's last month
By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle
Don't be fooled by the final score: Even though the Sauk Prairie girls' swim team thoroughly beat Lodi 105-22 on Oct. 2, there was plenty of competition.
It just wasn't between the Eagles and the Blue Devils.
"I try to make sure that, if I know they won't have any competition from the other team, that they have someone in the race that will provide competition," Sauk Prairie coach Melani Guentherman said in a phone interview Oct. 3 of her decision to mix up her team's event line-up against Lodi, which is in its first year with a girls' swim team. "It makes them race harder and any opportunity to race is a step in the right direction towards having your best races at the end of the season."
The most notable events Guentherman re-ordered for intra-team competition were the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 freestyle.
Abby Diehl, who usually races two of either the 50, 100 or 200 freestyle, raced the 100 backstroke to provide competition for Alison Meng, who finished fourth in the event at the WIAA Division 2 state meet a year ago.
Diehl did her job. The senior finished second, but pushed Meng, who won the event, to finish in one minute, 0.60 seconds — just :00.52 off her state time last year.
Diehl also won the 500 freestyle in 5:25.01 — a time that would probably be good enough to qualify for state, according to Guentherman. Diehl doesn't ordinarily race the 500 because each girl can only swim in two individual events, and she is stronger in the 50, 100 and 200.
Meng, who also usually races the 100 butterfly, raced the 200 freestyle instead. And she won the event in 2:04.52, not far ahead of Kelsey Kohlbeck, who finished second.
Lauren Ballweg won the 100 butterfly in 1:08.53 in Meng's absence, and Guentherman was impressed.
"She kept her form and had a lot of energy all the way through the end of the race, and she finished strong," Guentherman said.
Guentherman also mixed her 'A' and 'B' relay teams together so that they would be more even and better able to compete with each other.
But creating intra-team competition wasn't the only intended effect of re-ordering some of the events. Guentherman said she also did it to provide the girls a change of pace to their normal routines.
"When you swim the same event every single meet, when you get to the middle of the season you're plateaued and the girls aren't seeing times drop," she said. "By breaking them up and putting them in an event where they don't have time expectations, they usually surprise themselves and I think that keeps them refreshed."
For full results from this meet, check the Oct. 14 edition of the Eagle.
Results from Sauk Prairie's dual meet with McFarland from Oct. 7 weren't available in time for this edition.