In what was supposed to be a season with seven home varsity meets in a newly-renovated swimming pool, International Falls’ girls swimming and diving team now finds itself preparing for 2012 in the adjacent diving well with the FHS swimming pool now unavailable.
For the second year in a row, Falls’ girls team won’t be able to host all the home meets initially on its schedule.
Of the two home meets that were set for the first week in September, one is being rescheduled to October and the other is being moved to the opponent’s pool. The prospects of being able to host the other five home meets will depend upon when the swimming pool could be available.
The Broncos only hosted two meets last season when a new rule on pool depth was implemented by the National Federation of State High School Associations requiring a minimum of 4 feet to be able to use starting blocks.
Most of the home meets were moved elsewhere in 2011 when the entire FHS swimming pool had only been 3 1/2 feet deep. Only two teams agreed to start all the events in the water to comply with the new pool depth rule.
To be able to host a meet with starting blocks this season, the Falls school district undertook a renovation project budgeted at $198,000 to deepen the end of the swimming pool where the starting blocks are located to 5 feet.
The renovation work began earlier this year following the conclusion of the boys swimming and diving season. The pool reopened July 9, but then closed a few days later because of the problem with tiles coming off the bottom.
The pool has remained closed with the water drained and tiles removed as the school district waits on test results to find out why the tiles didn’t stay in place.
Until the swimming pool would reopen, Falls’ girls team finds itself without a 25-yard long pool to practice in. Accessories have been put in place in the shorter diving well, such as placing hockey pucks on the 12-foot bottom to lay out lanes to swim in.
Broncos head coach Jill Herzig, who is entering her fifth season in charge of the girls team, said costs and transportation issues, along with having to fit in practices around available pool times, nixed an idea to enter into a rental agreement for the team to practice in Canada at the Memorial Sports Centre pool in Fort Frances.
Given the situation with the FHS swimming pool, Herzig said the team should have the “ability to adapt to adverse situations.”
Falls has its first meet of the season Thursday at Hibbing.
2011 accomplishments
The Broncos recorded a 9-2-1 dual meet record in 2011. The two losses came against swimming powerhouses Grand Rapids and Hibbing. Falls defeated Warroad/ Roseau after several years of losses.
Falls has lost four swimmers to graduation — Rachel Adams, Morgan Bruess, Ashley Hasbargen and Therese Youso.
Bruess came the closest on the team to qualifying for the state meet last season after placing third at the Section 7A meet in the 100-yard backstroke in 1 minute and 6.82 seconds, 37-hundredths of a second behind the runner-up qualifier.
She was also part of the third-place Section 7A 200 freestyle relay team along with Adams and returning 11th-graders Breanna Shofner and Blair Johnson.
Bruess, Adams, Hasbargen and Shofner placed fourth at the Section meet in the 200 medley relay. Hasbargen added a seventh-place finish in her specialty event, the 100 breaststroke.
Johnson, Youso, Adams and returning 12th-grader Abby Oveson were part of the Broncos’ 400 freestyle relay team that came in fifth at Sections.
Adams and Shofner also competed in the 50 freestyle at the Section meet and placed fifth and sixth, respectively. Shofner added an eighth-place finish in the 100 butterfly.
Other top-10 Section finishes included returning 10th-graders Jessie Hell and Clara Wenger placing ninth and 10th, respectively, in the diving competition and returning 12th-grader Sarah Todd finishing 10th in the 100 breaststroke. Todd also placed 11th in the 200 individual medley.
2012 outlook
Close to 40 girls have come out for this year’s team. Herzig said the returning athletes are a strength in 2012, along with the “ability of our younger swimmers to step up to varsity.”
In addition to Shofner, Johnson, Oveson, Todd, Hell and Wenger, other top returners to the Broncos’ team, by name, grade and events, include:
• Courtney Klow, 11, backstroke and butterfly.
• Kenzie Gunnerson, 10, freestyle and backstroke.
• Abby Kostiuk, 9, backstroke.
• Claire Herzig, 8, breaststroke.
The coach said the team goals this season include beating Warroad/Roseau again and to “have fun,” while the teams to watch out for in 2012 include Grand Rapids and Hibbing.
