Coach Jon Schmitz had big things in mind when he set up the relays for the Albert Lea High School girls’ swimming and diving team, and they did not let him down.

Monday, October 29, 2001

Coach Jon Schmitz had big things in mind when he set up the relays for the Albert Lea High School girls’ swimming and diving team, and they did not let him down.

The relays set the tone for the young Tigers as they placed seventh among 10 teams in the Big Nine Conference meet Saturday in the ALHS.

&uot;We’re proud of our seventh-place finish,&uot; said Schmitz. &uot;For such a young team, that’s a lot of production. It was a great day.&uot;

The Tigers’ top-placing relay – and their top finish of the day – was third by the 200 freestyle team of Lonna Vanderploeg, Laura Grund, Chelsea Cole and Brooke Kaasa. They took 3 seconds off their season best, clocking 1:48.1. The same foursome was fourth in the 400 free relay in 3:59.7.

Kaeli Wayne, Leah Matheson, Alyssa Nelson and Amy Leach were eighth in the 200 medley relay in 2:04.9.

Senior Laura Grund took fourth in the 100 free in 58.03 seconds and sixth in the 200 individual medley in 2:27.2.

Other Albert Lea places: Brooke Kaasa, ninth, 200 free, 2:11.76 and 12th, 500 free, 5:59.6; Vanderploeg, 12th, 50 free, 27.64; Cole, 12th, 100 butterfly, 1:08.9; Wayne, 13th, 100 back, 1:10.6; Leach, 16th, 100 back, 1:10.9; Matheson, fifth, 100 breast, 1:15.76; Kristin Horejsi, sixth, 100 breast, 1:15.92.

&uot;We scored in all but one event, which we were really happy with,&uot; said Schmitz. &uot;It was also a great showing from our young kids. A lot of times dropped.&uot;

The next action for the Tigers is the section meet Nov. 9 and 10 at Austin.