Bemidji dominates Detroit Lakes for eighth dual victory
BEMIDJI – Officially the Bemidji girls swimming and diving team defeated Detroit Lakes 151-146 Tuesday in a dual meet at the BHS pool.
Unofficially, however, the margin of victory was much greater as, per the unwritten competitive agreement within the sport, the Lumberjacks coaches made full use of their junior varsity swimmers and elected to swim the final four events as exhibitions in an effort to narrow the final margin of victory.
“We experimented with the lineup,” said BHS head coach Woody Leindecker whose team improved to 8-0 in dual competition. “We wanted to give the JV kids a chance to swim at the varsity level.”
The junior varsity athletes are in the rest phase of their training while the varsity swimmers are being pushed to the maximum. Prior to Tuesday’s meet the coaches held a regular varsity practice and by the end of the meet the swimmers were exhausted.
“That’s all part of the training,” Leindecker said. “We put the hammer down on them. We are in the middle of four meets in seven days and we can’t sacrifice the training. The girls just have to swim through the hard schedule.”
Leindecker isn’t looking for perfection from his swimmers at this stage of the season. The goal is to structure the practice schedule in order to have the swimmers peak a few weeks from now.
“There are only two meets that we have to be sharp in: the section meet and the state meet,” Leindecker said. “And that is what we are working for.”
Before BHS pulled the plug on scoring points Tuesday the Jacks went 1-2-3 in the 200 medley relay, the 200 free, the 50 free, the 100 fly, the 100 free and the 500 free. Bemidji also finished 2-3-4-5 in the 200 individual medley and Kylei Grosfield captured diving.
Had the Lumberjacks not opted to swim exhibition they would also have had the top four times in the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay plus the top two spots in the 100 breast stroke.
Bemidji will be tested Thursday at Moorhead but, once again, the outcome doesn’t really matter.
“Moorhead has the same philosophy that we do,” Leindecker said. “They will be tired from their extra work. Our goal will be to try and win the meet but that won’t be easy. Moorhead has a couple of state-ranked free relays that we’ll try to counter. We could rest and stack our lineup but we aren’t going to sacrifice our training to try and beat Moorhead.”
Bemidji 151, Detroit Lakes 146
200 medley relay: 1-Bemidji (McRae, Ingalls, Littlewolf, Hoven) 2:12.77. Other Bemidji: 2-Bemidji (Frey, Bellefy, Grund, Jahner) 2:13.59; 3-Bemidji-Ritchie, Arndt, Vanasse, Sycks) 2:14.85; 4-Bemidji (Williams, L.Hendricks, Wright, Bunich) 2:23.15
200 free: 1-Hoven (B) 2:14.35. Other Bemidji: 2-Williams 2:14.95; 3-Ritchie 2:19.0; 5-Hewitt 2:25.42
200 IM: 1-Olson (DL) 2:26.65. Bemidji’s results: 2-Wright 2:40.66; 3-Knutson 2:41.80; 4-Littlewolf 2:45.67; 5-Kivi 2:56.49
50 free: 1-Frey (B) 26.02. Other Bemidji: 2-McRae 27.96; 3-L.Hendricks 28.64; 5-Vanasse 29.76
Diving: 1-Grosfield (B) 211.25. Other Bemidji: 6-Hennum 144.60; 7-Sycks 134.55
100 fly: 1-Littlewolf (B) 1:16.37. Other Bemidji: 2-Hewitt 1:18.20; 3-Grund 1:19.99; 5-Krause 1:23.84
100 free: 1-Vanasse (B) 1:02.60. Other Bemidji: 2-Johnson 1:03.85; 3-J.Hendricks 1:04.96
500 free: 1-L.Hendricks (B) 5:44.31. Other Bemidji: 2-Ritchie 6:06.76; 3-Jahner 6:07.22; 5-Knutson 6:36.21
*200 free relay: 1-Detroit Lakes 2:00.20. Bemidji’s exhibition results: B-(Arndt, Hewitt, Ingalls, Frey) 1:56.74; B-(Hoven, Bellefy, Kivi, Jahner) 1:56.89; B-J.Hendricks, Johnson, Knutson, Grund) 1:57.69; B-McRae, Fellman, Krause, Williams) 1:58.20
*100 back: 1-Olson (DL) 1:11.04. Bemidji’s exhibition results: Wright 1:17.67; Hoven 1:18.79; Krause 1:21.68; Kivi 1:41.25
*100 breast stroke: 1-Livermore (DL) 1:23.15. Bemidji’s exhibition results: Frey 1:13.65; Arndt 1:18.95; Bellefy 1:30.33; Ingalls 1:36.29
*400 free relay: 1-Detroit Lakes 4:31.15. Bemidji’s exhibition results: B-(Williams, Wright, Grund, Jahner) 4:16.31; B-Arndt, Krause, Kivi, L.Hendricks) 4:18.60; B-(J.Hendricks, Johnson, Knutson, Littlewolf) 4:19.00; B-(McRae, Fellman, Vanasse, Hewitt) 4:24.92
* - Bemidji swam only exhibition
