T-Bird swimmers finish second at Green Bay

The Iola-Scandinavia Thunderbird Swim Team took part in an 11-team sprint invitational at Green Bay last Friday night and pulled out a strong second place finish.

The annual "Friday Night Fifties" is a sprint swimming meet where each swimmer participates in five 50-yard sprint races, one for each stroke.

"This is a really fun meet for our kids," said Coach Dick Wright. "We have been going to this meet for several years because it gives our kids some great competition."

For the third year in a row, the T-Birds brought home a second place finish against some teams from much larger cities.

Green Bay YMCA won the meet, followed by Iola-Scandinavia. They were followed by Ashwaubenon, Oshkosh Y, Marinette-Menominie, Fox Cities Y, Marquette Y, Wittenberg, River Cities and Oshkosh Swim Club.

"Our kids once again did a great job," said Wright. "About 80 percent of all our times were personal bests for the kids. It was a great effort."

Leading the way for the eight and under group were Taylor Carlson, Matthew Glodowski, Cassidy Kostoch, Sara Breed and Ryan Breed. Carlson was the overall third place girl out of 21 girls as she placed second in the breaststroke and IM, third in freestyle and fifth in fly and back.

Glodowski was also third overall out of 10 boys with second in the fly, IM, back and free. Kostach, Sara Breed and Ryan Breed each had several top five finishes in their races.

Ana Holden and Elisabeth Sullivan led the 9-10 group with top 10 finishes (out of 35 girls) in four of five of their events.

The 11-12 group was paced by Marcus Glodowski, Katherine Leaf and Jessica Gutschow. Glodowski finished third overall out of 15 boys with second place in IM, thirds in free, fly and breast, and sixth in backstroke.

Leaf and Gutschow each piled up points for the T-Birds with several top 10 finishes in the largest, most competitive age group (37 girls).

Mitch Glodowski led the 13-14 year old T-Birds as he finished fourth overall out of 17 boys. He recorded a third in backstroke, fourth in free, IM, and second in fly and fifth in breaststroke.

The 15-18 group was paced by a trio of boys - Tyler Faldet, Powers Spees and Ryan Parks - as each recorded three top five finishes as they finished fifth, sixth and seventh overall for the older boys (out of 16 swimmers.

"We took 26 swimmers (out of 67) to this meet," said Wright, "and every one of them did really well. I am very proud of this group and what they did against some very good swimmers from big teams."

The swimmers of the week were Tayler Carlson and Jessica Gutschow for the girls and Mitch Glodowski for the boys.

The T-Birds host Brillion and Seymour at the I-S pool this Saturday, June 23, and are off on June 30.