Visitation Swimmers Say 'No Pool, No Problem'

The saying is that in adversity, you can either sink or swim. The swimming and diving team has had to deal with the loss of their normal swimming pool at and turned it into a positive.

The St. Thomas Academy pool was closed for some planned renovation and maintenance work this summer. However, severe deficiencies were discovered in the structural steel support beams of three of the walls in the pool building, according to the school.

Saint Thomas Academy kept the pool closed as a precautionary measure after consultation with two structural engineers.*

The closure has forced the Visitation team to practice at Falcon Ridge Middle School in Apple Valley and Black Hawk Middle School in Eagan.

Visitation has been a Class A swimming power as they won the state title in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. They finished seventh in the state last year, but return most of their top performers.

Long-time head coach Nate Linscheid has high expectations for this year’s squad.

“I think that we have a pretty good team,” said Linscheid. “We have a lot of depth. We have some really fast swimmers, but we also have a lot of newcomers who have some swimming experience, so hopefully we can do well at the True Team level and at the state level at the end.”

Linscheid said that the team has been successful for many years, due to their talent and team chemistry.

“I think that the girls really work together as a team,” said Linscheid. “They have pretty high expectations of themselves and they work really hard. They make it an inviting place to be and to come to and want to swim. Once we had some success, it just built on itself and they keep getting better.”

Senior Megan Gaylord, who swims the 200 yard IM  (individual medley), 100 yard breaststroke and the 200 yard freestyle relay, agreed with Linscheid that there are reasons why they are among the top teams each year.

“Of course, it is always good to have people who are good swimmers, but also I think that the team gets along so well and we mesh really well,” said Gaylord. “We support each other and compel each to do well.”

Gaylord, who said she hopes to swim in college, said that not being able to swim in their normal pool has not been a distraction.

“Not so far,” said Gaylord. “We loved St. Thomas as a pool, but the pools that we have been swimming in have actually been nicer. Our home meets are at St. Kate’s, which is an awesome pool. It will be kind of nice to switch it up a little bit.”

Linscheid feels that move has actually helped the team.

“So far, it hasn’t been that difficult,” said Linscheid. “It has been a blessing in disguise, because we have a much bigger team this year, so we get to swim in bigger pools now and it gives more room for everybody.

We’ll have our home meets at St. Kate’s, which is an eight-lane pool, so we get to have girls swim a lot more events and not have to do the same things over and over again. Some kids have to drive farther and some have to get rides, but otherwise we have great facilities to be in and the District 196 has been pretty nice to us.”

Fellow senior Meg Foster, who was part of the 2008 state championship team, said she thinks the team will bounce back from a disappointing 2010 season, at least according to their high standards.

“I feel that they are still pretty high,” said Foster. “We didn’t do as well last year as we have done in previous years, but I think that we have an awesome chance. We have some amazing new swimmers that came on to our team this year, so I am pretty excited and have high hopes for the team.”

Foster, who swims the 200 freestyle, 200 IM and 100 fly, said that being part of that championship team motivates her to get back to the state tournament.

“I was on the team for one of those years on one of the relays,” said Foster. “It was just so exciting and I really hope that we can have another season where we have so much adrenaline and excitement and high support behind us from our team and our school.”

Foster believes that the talent level at Visitation has made the team a state power over the past several years.

“We have been really blessed with a ton of amazing swimmers in the past years,” said Foster. “Everyone has been pushing themselves so hard and using each other to push each other to their highest expectations during practices. We all have an amazing time, which really pushes us to succeed.”

That push to succeed could mean that Visitation will be at yet another pool, the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, for the state tournament at the end of the season.

*Correction: The original version of this article stated the STA pool had been condemned; however, the building has not been inspected by the city. The school has posted more information about the STA pool closure online. Mendota Heights Patch regrets the error.