Swimmers from all across South Dakota will embark on a journey to Aberdeen this weekend for the State A Swim Meet. Aberdeen Swim Club President Megan Rosendahl says she has been preparing for the meet by treating it just like any other, along with help from the state Local Swim Committee (LSC).
“The state LSC, the state board, does a lot of help for the state sanctioned meets, so they will be in charge of making sure we’ve got our trophies and our ribbons and things like that,” Rosendahl said. “For us, we are just putting together a meet the best way that we know how and operating it like any other meet.
Rosendahl says there are not many differences between a regular season meet, such as the High Point Meet earlier this year, and the State Meet.
“We’re going to treat them very similarly in regards to the number of swimmers that are coming,” Rosendahl said. “In the High Point Meet, we welcomed about 480 swimmers. The State Meet will be very similar. There’s gonna be about 450 swimmers pulling from all corners of the state.”
The meet, which begins on Friday, will feature several different age groups that will compete throughout the weekend. Rosendahl said the age groups are broken up into two-year spans, beginning with the 8and-under age group and ending with the 17-and-older age group, with multiple age groups in between.
“How we typically set up a meet is it’s split up so 12-and-unders will swim in the morning and 13-and-olders will swim in the afternoon,” Rosendahl said. “So, it’s a really nice way for swimmers not to have to be on deck all day. The only downside I guess is if you’re a parent and you’ve got swimmers in both age groups. Then you are there all day.”
Rosendahl is also an official at the state meet, and has served on the Board of Directors for the past five years, including as the secretary. However, Rosendahl recently accepted the position of president of the Aberdeen Swim Club Board of Directors about a month ago, and says she has been working on adjusting to the new role.
“Stepping into the role of President, there’s just a lot more organization that I have to keep under control,” Rosendahl said. “Trying to get details out to the membership in a timely manner, keeping an open communication with our head coach and our assistant coaches, so the biggest difference for me is time management and organization and just making sure everyone is on the same page all the time.”
Above all, Rosendahl wants to make sure that fans and swimmers feel welcome not only to the community of Aberdeen, but the meet as well.
“What we’re really looking forward to is welcoming some swimmers that wouldn’t usually make the trek,” Rosendahl said. “For example, from Rapid City, that’s a really long drive, and so we’re excited to bring those folks to our little corner of the state and to show how great of a meet we can run and how Aberdeen can kind of roll out the red carpet, as far as hospitality goes, to our out-of-town guests.”
For more details on the State Swim Meet, check out the Aberdeen Swim Club on Facebook or click on the following link:
