Kennedy dives for more records

A focused, determined and aggressive Shaun Kennedy is a dangerous Shaun Kennedy.

At Thursday's swimming and diving meet against Willmar, won 105-81 by the Warriors, Kennedy continued his assault on the Warrior record books as he posted 326.10 points, breaking school and pool records for six dives.

Kennedy's score shattered St. Cloud Apollo diver Mike Noonan's 1989 pool record of 295.50 and Kennedy's own school record of 291.55, set last year.

"This was the first meet that we can honestly say that Shaun was aggressive on each dive," Warriors coach John Zemke said. "That was something that diving coach (Owen) Trout has been telling him. He really went after it and he wanted it awful bad."

Since this was Brainerd's last home meet, Kennedy had to make the most of his last chance to do a little record rewriting.

"I'm really happy," said Kennedy. "It's a big stress relief because this was my last chance to get this one. I always manage to drag it out to the very end. I definitely dove the best I had all year. That's the most concentrated I've been."

Yet, Kennedy's record-setting performance didn't overshadow the Warriors' convincing win.

Miles Krueger picked up a win in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:57.79, a lifetime best. Freshman Josiah Collins won a hard-fought battle in the 500 on his way to posting a lifetime best 5:25.18.

"I decided to pace it instead of trying to stay with the guy ahead of me," Collins said. "He got tired before I did so I just sprinted at the end and beat him. I like swimming the 500 because it's more of a mind game to beat people."

Senior Matt Schmitz won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke to help the Warriors to victory over the rival Cardinals.

But Willmar's Scott Hagemeyer tried to his best to rain on Brainerd's parade. He too set a pool record in the 100 freestyle with a time of 48.10 and won the 50 freestyle.

"They beat us pretty bad down in Willmar last year," Zemke said. "The guys were really pumped because they weren't going to get beat by them again. This was beat Willmar week."

Zemke also pointed to the swimming of senior Matt DesMarais as a catalysts for this year's success.

"Matt DesMarais is only a second-year swimmer," said Zemke. "He's scoring some points for us and he works his tail off in practice."

Zemke credits this year's seniors as the glue that's kept the team together. That, and the fact Brainerd's depth has made up for the lack of a dominant swimmer.

"The crew of seniors have done a great job for us, in and out of the pool," Zemke said. "It's totally a team effort and we've been doing it with depth all year. For some reason we've been putting it all together this year."

Brainerd 105, Willmar 81

200 medley relay -- 1-Willmar 1:47.87, 2-B (Matt Schmitz, Scott Antolak, Brett Severson, Andrew Mehr) 1:47.95, 3-B (Tim Lange, Scott Lykins, Nathaniel Tyner, Shaun Kennedy) 1:56.50.

200 freestyle -- 1-Miles Krueger (B) 1:57.79, 2-Josiah Collins (B) 1:58.93, 4-Matt DesMarais (B) 2:07.59.

200 individual medley -- 1-Ray Nelson (W) 2:08.38, 2-Antolak (B) 2:18.00, 3-Tyner (B) 2:25.30, 6-Thomsen 2:48.73.

50 freestyle -- 1-Scott Hagemeyer (W) 21.96, 2-Mehr (B) 23.46, 3-Kennedy (B) 25.71, 4-Severson (B) 25.89.

Diving -- 1-Kennedy (B) 326.10, 2-Josh Olson (B) 240.55, 5-Scott Tetreault (B) 125.05.

100 butterfly -- 1-Schmitz (B) 1:00.82, 2-Severson (B) 1:04.11, 3-Tyner (B) 1:04.88.

100 freestyle -- Hagemeyer (W) 48.01, 2-Mehr (B) 53.15, 3-Lange (B) 56.03, 4-DesMarais (B) 57.26.

500 freestyle -- 1-Collins (B) 5:26.18, 3-Krueger (B) 5:33.50, 4-Lykins (B) 5:56.57.

200 freestyle relay -- 1-Willmar 1:36.40, 2-B (Antolak, Krueger, Collins, Mehr) 1:37.83, 3-B (Lange, Tyner, DesMarais, Kennedy) 1:42.78.

100 backstroke -- 1-Schmitz (B) 1:03.40, 3-Lange (B) 1:08.82, 5-Thomsen (B) 1:18.99.

100 breaststroke -- 1-Ray Nelson (W) 1:03.42, 2-Antolak (B) 1:09.51, 4-Lykins (B) 1:13.80, 5-Robert Hanson (B) 1:16.82.

400 freestyle relay -- 1-Willmar 3:57.25, 2-B (Schmitz, Thomsen, Lykins, Hanson) 4:02.99.

Conference -- B 5-1, W 3-3. Overall -- B 8-1, W 5-4. Next meet -- Brainerd at Rocori 6 p.m. Feb. 6.