The Oshkosh West Index - Swimmers edge Neenah in nail-biting finish

Volume 106, Issue 1

Online Features

Swimmers edge Neenah in nail-biting finish

By Morgan Counts
posted September 28, 2009

After falling short of out-swimming Neenah by a mere point and possibly a few millimeters, the girls' swim team is putting away the clippers and letting the nails grow, in hopes of coming out on top in the second half of their season. The swimmers are 2-1 in the conference season, beating out Appleton North and Appleton West with sound point margins. According to head coach Carrie Bores, the meet could have teetered either way and the loss was far fromdisappointing.

"Neenah gave us a challenge," she said. "We see-sawed back and forth the whole meet and it was really anybody's meet. Last year they beat us by 20 points, so I am very happy with our performance. In a couple of places we didn't get in the top five and they don't place past five, so that would have helped, but a few races we literally lost by a fingernail. This meet came at a good time because we needed to be pressed and a lot of girls made significant time drops."

The team has yet to face Appleton East, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh North, and Bores says that none of those meets can be taken for granted.

"These teams have a handful of girls that will challenge us," she said. "North is a very improved team this year and they will have more depth, so we will have to stay on top. We can't go in there thinking they are going to be easy wins because everyone is beatable on any given day. Neenah was a good challenge for us as a team, but there is still a lot of individual competition left and I don't think our point spread will be as wide against North as it has been in past years."

The swimmers faced Neenah again last Saturday at the Neenah invite. Heading into the last relay, the Wildcats were only leading by 1.5 points. Coming out of the relay, West dominated Neenah by 30 points. The girls experienced similar success in the Appleton West Terror Relay Invite.

"There were 11 teams and everyone had one relay entry at that invite," said Bores. "There were two heats and you didn't know what the composition of the heats is until you got there. You just have to swim your heart out. We won it overall and also within our conference. Everybody medaled and all relays placed within the top three. We have won the meet before, but we had never accomplished that. It was very much a team accomplishment for the girls and it was a big highlight for varsity."

Acquiring such a depth in the relays requires each swimmer to compete in a variety of events. A prime example of this versatility is senior Jennifer Rothe, who swims in the 200 free, 500 free, 200 free relay, and 400 free relay.

"Our 400 free relay is always really strong," she said. "We win it every single time by about five to ten seconds and in swimming, seconds are a lot of time. I am hoping to make it to state for my senior year because I haven't made it yet and I think we have a pretty good chance with this relay."

Attaining versatility calls for changing the line-up for each meet, in order to achieve the strongest combination possible once the postseason rolls around.

"I am still moving the line up around and we really need to get everybody to step up and fill the spots that we lost last year," said Bores. With Stephanie Bolin and Elina Hu graduated, some big points were lost. To change the line-up, we have to know who is out there. We can change the line-up per team and I base it on who our competition is."

Replacing the suits of those who have graduated has been an easy task. The swim team has a strong j.v. team with many new swimmers and a few freshmen on varsity, including Leah Bolin, who has had two of three sisters precede her, and one being her teammate, junior Natalie Bolin.

"I have big footsteps to follow," said Leah Bolin, "but I feel very comfortable coming in because I have been swimming since I was four and I have known all of these girls from the Y swim team, so it's about the same."

To welcome in such a large band of fresh swimmers, the five senior co-captains, Sadie Dempsey, Hillary Woldt, Heidi Klein, Abbey Tuchscherer, and Lindsay Celichowski have been doing their job of pulling everyone together.

"Being a senior just means you have to be more of a leader," said Tuchscerer. "You have to think about others instead of yourself and you have to make sure everybody is staying focused on swimming."

Although many individuals have high hopes for postseason success, including state, Bores says it is important for them to focus on the races they are swimming, and not the ones they will be.

"My philosophy is to take it one meet at a time," she said. "We have to stay humble and build off of previous performances and build upon what we have conquered so far. We have a goal for state and we have a goal to finish in the top three of conference, but we don't look too far ahead. When you do that, you put too much pressure on the athlete. We need to keep working hard and keep everything in perspective, and good things will happen."

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photo by Andrew Bores

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