Saying Goodbye

I can't think of a better way to go out than this. As we say goodbye to Haussler, it was really nice to have all of the PND Family there. Let us hope that we can continue the PND Swimming and Diving Family tradition in our new home, where ever that may be.

We have become everyone's target

http://www.register-mail.com/stories/022207/SPO_BCF75ACH.GID.shtml


GALESBURG - A year ago, the Galesburg High School boys 200-yard freestyle relay team notched the Silver Streaks swim team's best-ever finish at state.
But from that second-place team, only Devon Boydstun didn't graduate.
Last Saturday, Boydstun teamed with sophomore Kenton Cooper, junior Tom Fornander and sophomore Patrick Inness to place first in the 200 free relay at the United Township Sectional and advance to Friday's IHSA State Swim Meet at Winnetka New Trier High School.
"If you would have told me we were going to get this year's 200 free relay team to state at this time last year, I don't know if I would have believed it," said GHS coach John Willy. "I knew we had Devon and Kenton, but I wouldn't have picked the other two."
Cooper was an alternate on last year's team. But Fornander and Inness didn't become regulars on this year's 200 free relay until later in the season.
"Both those guys really came around this year in the sprints," Willy said. "It took awhile to find where Fornander would fit, but he really brought his sprint times down. And you never know what Patrick is going to do. He got really fired up during the sectional and gave us a real nice split."
While this year's team doesn't have the state championship dreams of last year's team - their sectional time is 34th out of the 35 schools that qualified - Willy said the experience for the underclassmen is priceless.
"Kenton went up last year as an alternate, so he's seen the atmosphere," Willy said. "But it's a whole different situation when you're trying to compete and their are 700 or 800 people on deck and a crowd of 2,000 in the stands. Things are so fast and furious, even warmups are something you have to get used to. Getting to state as a sophomore and a junior can make a big difference when you're a senior."
Willy said Galesburg's goal is to swim the state qualifying time of 1:30.19 and to beat Peoria Notre Dame.
"We'll need everyone to bring their times down," Willy said. "All the talk on the message boards is how fast Peoria Notre Dame is, so we'll use that as motivation and try to get them."
Warmups for Friday's preliminaries begin at 2 p.m. The meet begins at 3:30. The top 12 teams in Friday's 200 free relay prelim advance to Saturday's finals.

A Picture Share!

Jake is Athlete of the Week

For those of you who missed it during the 6pm news, you can watch the
VIDEO HERE.

IntraMural Swim Meet Update

We need help on Wednesday, February 28th with Bradley's IntraMural swim meet. We need a group of people to help run the meet. We need to arrive at 5:50pm. The meet starts at 6:30pm and it should conclude around 7:45pm or so.

After the meet, we are going to gather up our belongings such as the lane lines, fins, etc. The pool demolition begins the next day so we need to have everything out of there. We could use some people with a pickup truck to help hall the lane lines.

Jake on WHOI Tonight

Jake is being honored as Athlete of Week by WHOI news channel 19 tonight on the 6pm news. Tune in!

2007 Sectional Results

Check out the Sectional Results.

Relieved After a Long Day of Pressure

The team shares a moment after their intense victory. Thanks to Ching for supplying the photo. Check out her posts on our Sectional victory at Ching's Blog.

Derek Taunted by Pekin Parent

At the end of the Sectional Swim Meet, Derek was taunted by a Pekin parent that our 400 free relay had jumped, and that Derek had no class. I can dismiss at least one of those claims with some Dartfish analysis. Check out the photos below.

Here is a snapshot of Normal West's lead-off swimmers hitting the wall. His split was 49.62. As you can see, their second swimmer was flat-footed when their lead-off swimmer hit the wall.
Here is a snapshot of Jake hitting the wall. His split was 49.95. As you can see, Frank was still in contact with block when Jake finished. I will admit that a perfect exchange looks illegal when compared to a slow one.

Frank Prepares for the Shave-Down

A Picture Share!

Ray Shaves His Head & I Wonder What Joan will Think

Sectional Heat Sheet

Check out the Heat Sheet for Sectionals

Help Needed @ Bradley Intra-Mural Swim Meet

We are going to help Bradley run their last Intra-Mural swim meet in Haussler Hall on February 28th.  This meet is great fun, and it will be a chance for everyone to get back together and clean out the pool before it comes down.  Let me know if you can help.

Ribordy & Amerman Dominate

This is mostly bragging...but has a lot of truth to it too.

People hate to lose over and over to the same people. It is just human nature.

Check out the meet results from the CIA Shark Meet. (hint: 8&under girls)

http://www.paww.org/shark07full.htm

There are some pretty pround PND coaches this weekend.

2007 Mid-State 6 Conference Champs