RF swim and dive sees leadership, improved times in season’s opening month

By Andrew Harrington
Posted 1/14/25

RIVER FALLS — The River Falls boys swim and dive team has been on the up and up all season long, and a 91-84 loss to Tartan-North Jan. 7 proved how close they are to the top rather than being a …

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RF swim and dive sees leadership, improved times in season’s opening month

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RIVER FALLS — The River Falls boys swim and dive team has been on the up and up all season long, and a 91-84 loss to Tartan-North Jan. 7 proved how close they are to the top rather than being a setback.

“We knew it was going to be a meet where we focused on the individual results versus the final score because Tartan/North is a team double our size, so we talked ahead of time to focus on what they could do to swim their race and be smart. For the most part, I saw that and we had some season best times,” Head Coach Caitlin Brudzinski said.

Sophomore Finn Jensen picked up a win in the 200-yard freestyle and took second in the 500-yard freestyle. It was actually the second-place finish that stood out to Brudzinski because the time of 6:15 was an improvement of 13 seconds from his start of the year time and Thursday against Chippewa Falls he would beat that time by another 13 seconds, totaling 26 seconds.

“We graduated our strongest distance swimmers last year and Finn Jensen, a sophomore who was swimming some distance last year, came in right where he left off. He's continued to drop time and on Thursday, dropped 13 seconds from his swim on Tuesday, which gives him an improvement of 26 seconds from the start of the year,” Brudzinski said. “All of our four upperclassmen swimmers have really stepped up this year and Andrew Hoffman, one of our freshmen, has been willing to swim one of the tougher strokes, butterfly, when I wasn't sure we were going to have anyone for that event without taking someone else out of their main event.”

The captain, Daniel Carns, has proven to be a leader inside and out of the pool for the Wildcats, winning both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races in dominant fashion at the meet. Brudzinski said Carns is a great leader for the team; however, they also get leadership from many of the older guys.

“As our captain, Daniel Carns is the obvious answer, but all of those upperclassmen take on some sort of leadership role,” Brudzinski said. “I've watched them give the newer athletes tips and suggestions when they have a couple minutes of downtime in between sets. They also continue to encourage everyone throughout practices and meets.”

Tristan Patz also showed out against Tartan-North, winning the diving competition on the day with a score of 154.7. Jacob Weiss won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06 and Joseph Hoffman won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:14.

Brudzinski has liked what the underclassmen have done of late, sparking some hope for making leaps late in the year as they get comfortable.

“A lot of the major time drops come from our newer athletes. Oscar [Olle-LaJoie], Miles [Kamrath], Wil [Whipple], and Andy [Hoffman] all have big drops in their events and we'll look to continue that as the season continues,” Brudzinski said. “But even our more experienced athletes have seen the improvements whether it's from swimming in the off seasons like Jake [Weiss] who started the season even faster than last and has continued to drop time or from hard work the last couple months like Ty [Wise] who swam his 50 on Thursday just .11 off the time he swam at state last year.”

It can be scary when a team is halfway through their season and still has a ton of things to improve on. Luckily for the Wildcats, this is not the case for this year’s team.

“Honestly, they can continue doing what they're doing,” Brudzinski said. “They'll work on being technique focused even when tired so they can avoid injuries, but pushing themselves in practice to continue to build strength. I like what I'm seeing so far and am excited to see how everyone finishes out the season.”

River Falls Wildcats, swim and dive, Big Rivers Conference