Bemidji girls swimming and diving head coach Woody Leindecker isn鈥檛 concerned with regular season wins and losses early in the fall campaign. However, taking third place in the Lumberjacks鈥� home invitational on Saturday at Bemidji High 歪歪漫画 is a welcomed bonus.
The Jacks finished with a team score of 417.5, trailing only Melrose (601) and Two Rivers (498). Grand Rapids, Detroit Lakes, Ogilvie/Mora and Warroad/Roseau/Greenbush-Middle River also raced on Saturday.
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Bemidji recorded nine top-five finishes individually, led by a diving trio that continues to impress.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to see our girls swim against good competition in a setting like this,鈥� Leindecker said. 鈥淭hey were competitive today. Everybody from the top-end kids to the kids near the bottom got to race today.鈥�
Kennedy Olson placed third among the divers with a score of 230.2. Ridley Hadrava took sixth (209.450), while Taylor Hanks finished ninth (198.35). Their performances followed a top-three sweep in Brainerd to open the season on Aug. 29.
鈥淲e knew (these scores) were coming because they started (diving) together pretty young,鈥� Leindecker said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e where they should be right now.鈥�
The top BHS finish came in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Abby Daman, Elena Harmsen, Elle Wille and Ryan Gaskins took second place with a time of 1:49.13. The same group also took third place in the 400-yard freestyle relay at 4:04.72.
Bemidji鈥檚 four-swimmer team also competed well individually. Gaskins took third in the 500-yard freestyle (2:12.74) and fourth in the 200 (2:12.74). Daman raced to a third-place time of 1:15.66 in the 100-yard breaststroke after claiming fourth place in the 200-yard individual medley (2:32.49).
Wille swam in the same races as Gaskins, finishing fifth in both the 200 (2:12.96) and 500-yard freestyle (6:00.54). Harmsen notched a pair of sixth-place finishes in the 50 (27.68) and 100-yard freestyle (1:02.94) competitions.
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Results aside, Saturday was another chance for a young BHS team to get its feet wet. Leindecker will continue to shuffle his lineup to find the best fit well into the season.
鈥淚t can take until at least October,鈥� Leindecker said. 鈥淓very week, we move our lineup around a lot, especially our younger girls. The veterans, we get them out of their events so they don鈥檛 get stale. If you鈥檙e swimming the breaststroke every single day, you need to break out of that once in a while. Go swim butterfly.鈥�
Daman and Gaskins paced the Lumberjacks at sections last year, leading a young team through some growing pains. Now, the swimming collective looks to take a step forward in 2023.
鈥淲e are definitely getting better year after year,鈥� Leindecker said. 鈥淲e were super young last year. The girls learned a lot, and they鈥檙e still learning. I think they just need to learn how to race and not have the fear of racing before they step on the block. That鈥檇 be a big thing for them right now. Today, our goal was to be the best off the walls and the best on the starts. You could see that, and now we just need to keep adding on to that.鈥�
Leindecker added that setting small goals from meet to meet helps lead to rewarding outcomes, even when time isn鈥檛 shaved off from a previous race.
鈥淲e saw it today where a couple of them got out, and their time was a little off of what they wanted,鈥� Leindecker said. 鈥淏ut they did their turns right. They did the little things right, and the time they want will come later. It鈥檚 a patience thing.
鈥淲ins and losses don鈥檛 mean anything to us in the (regular season). All we care about right now is improving to the point where we swim our best races in November.鈥�
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