Kiwanis Swim Team Looks Forward To First Home Meet

With the first home meet, the Glasgow Invitational on June 23-24, coming up, the Kiwanis Swim Team was hoping to shore up some technique and head into the meet with positive momentum. Unfortunately, the team took a small step back on June 16-17, at the Chinook Invitational.

After a second-place finish in Malta that saw swimmers really progress rapidly, the team was only able to grab third in Chinook behind both Chinook and Malta. There were just too many disqualifications, according to Coach Matthew Dangleis.

But it’s early in the season and some struggles with disqualifications and technique are expected.

“It’s nice to win . . . but honestly it’s not a big deal to me. I’d rather get the mistakes out now and correct those mistakes” before heading into divisionals, said Dangleis.

That’s what they will focus on this week to prepare for the home meet in hopes of putting on a good show for the Glasgow faithful.

Several swimmers still had strong days for the team, though. Dalton Sand and Khloe Krumwiede each earned high points in their divisions. Sand took first in both the 25 breaststroke and the 25 butterfly. He also took second in the 25 freestyle. Krumwiede meanwhile, took first in the 50 free, the 100 breaststroke and the 100 free. In the 100 free, she improved her previous best time by over two seconds.

A couple other swimmers impressed Dangleis with their improvement from one meet to the next, too. One of which was Tristin Vandall. Vandall is just starting to swim competitively and has struggled finishing a race. However, in Chinook, Vandall not only completed a race but he put on a pretty good show in the 50 free.

Cara Goeke also caught Dangleis’ eye as she greatly improved from the first meet and placed in the top three in three events. She placed second in the 50 fly, third in the 200 individual medley and third in the 50 breaststroke. She improved her best time in both the medley and the breaststroke event.

Ben Rauscher, fresh off a high-point performance in Malta, would have had another outstanding showing himself if he didn’t have to miss part of the second day. He was still able to place second in the 200 individual medley.

The other high-point swimmer in Malta, Rachael Zeiger, followed with another good weekend. She placed second in the 100 fly and also earned points in the 400 free.

Klaire Krumweide added 34 points of her own with a pair of second-place finishes in the 25 breaststroke and the 25 fly. She also placed third in the 25 free.

Tim and Laurel Wageman contributed quite a few points of their own, 67, between the two of them. Tim Wageman placed second in the 50 backstroke, third in the 50 breaststroke and fourth in the 50 free. Laurel Wageman placed first in the 100 breaststroke, second in the 50 free and third in the 100 free.

Alex McNew contributed with a pair of second-place finishes in the 25 free and the 25 backstroke. Tony Kaiser placed third in the 50 free and Katie Kaiser placed third in the 50 backstroke. Jordan Kulczyk placed second in the 50 free and third in the 50 fly.

Keeley McNew placed third in the 50 free and Natosha Sand placed first in the 50 fly. Devyn Bell had the largest single time improvement in a particular event when she improved her time in the 400 free by over 23 seconds.

Motivation is the single biggest factor to further improvement, though, according to Dangleis. After the first couple of events, it becomes easy to take meets off knowing that it’s not vital to win races until divisionals. However, it’s at these events that swimmers improve their technique and endurance that will pay off later in the season.

Swimmers won’t need much motivation this weekend with their sole meet at home this year.