More scenes from the Section 6A swimming and diving meet in Morris this past weekend

Cheering on the 400 relay race.

Cheering on a freestyle race.

More from Saturday night's Section 6A girls' swimming and diving championships

Streeter swimmers compete at sections

Tia Marthaler in the 100 breastroke.

Danielle Banal in the 100 backstroke.

Senior Jenna Tullis in the 500 freestyle.

Julie Bushard competes in the 200 freestyle relay. PHOTOS BY RANDY OLSON

Despite a valiant effort and plenty of close calls, the Sauk Centre girls' swimming and diving team will not be sending anybody on to the state meet.
The Mainstreeters swam well at the section meet Friday and Saturday in Morris, but couldn’t muster any qualifiers in what has become a very tough section. Sartell-St. Stephen’s Marisa Wood and Ellen Bloom dominated the meet in several individual categories.
Sauk’s best chance to get to state was in relays. The 400-meter freestyle relay and the 200 freestyle relay both fared well, but fell just short. The 400-relay team was disqualified in the finals. Still, even their preliminary time wouldn’t have been good enough to get them to state. The team of Sarah Nelson, Katie Schulte, Jenna Tullis and Tiana Molitor finished third in prelims with a time of 3:51.42, more than five seconds ahead of their seed time.
The 200 freestyle relay squad of Nelson, Julie Bushard, Tullis and Molitor also had a great showing, finishing fourth in the finals with a time of 1:44.50, more than five seconds ahead of their seed time.
That was the case for many Sauk swimmers, who earned improved times in the section meet.
Other top finishers in individual categories were Molitor and Tullis. Each posted a fifth place finish. Tullis, a senior who capped off a great career, was fifth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:02.64, more than six seconds ahead of her seed time.
Molitor was fifth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 55.64. Her preliminary time was even better at 54.84, which was ahead of her seed time of 56.00.
Molitor also finished seventh in the 50 freestyle in 25.22. Sarah Nelson was ninth in that race, capping off an impressive meet for both sophomores, who look to be great up-and-comers for the Sauk program. In addition to her ninth place mark in the 50 freestyle, Nelson was also seventh in the 100 butterfly in 1:05.46, more than two seconds ahead of her season best seed time.
Senior Katie Schulte also turned in a good meet, finishing 9th in the 500 freestyle in 5:46.08, a full eight seconds ahead of her seed time. Schulte was also 14th in the 200 freestyle in 2:11.16, two-plus seconds ahead of her season best.
Also placing for the Streeters were senior Tia Marthaler(9th, 100 breaststroke, 1:15.95), Shaylynn Wichryk (19th, diving, 93.35), Danielle Banal (15th, 100 butterfly, 1:10.67; 14th, 100 backstroke 1:08.15), and the 200 medley relay team of Kendyl Tullis, Marthaler, Banal and Bushard, who finished 9th in 2:03.64.
Despite not getting anyone through the tough section, the Sauk girls had an outstanding season, and despite losing some quality seniors such as Tullis, Schulte and Marthaler, will be a forced to be reckoned with in the next couple years with a plethora of quality young swimmers waiting in the wings.

Check out the summary and photos from swimming and diving at Section 6A last night

Click to read the article:
http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=358&ArticleID=13490

Mainstreeters volleyball jumps all over Esko in game one

Sauk Centre jumped ahead 6-0 right away and now leads 11-2 after Macy Weller pounded down a kill in game one.

Game two...
After winning game one 25-9, the Mainstreeters again jumped out to a big lead in game two and led 8-1 in the early stages. As of this update at 11:26 a.m., the blog counter hit 35,000 on the nose!
The Mainstreeters earned a side out and it's 13-5.
Esko then scored three straight to make it 13-8.
An Esko hit out of bounds put the Mainstreeters up 16-9.
Sauk Centre put the pedal down and ended up on a 4-0 run to lead 19-9; Esko called their final timeout.
(live blogging now)
Esko found new life and cut the cap to a 21-15 score.
A hit out of bounds by Esko 22-15
A hitting error by Sauk 22-16
Krista ace attack! 23-16
Jordan Gamradt serves...but Esko returns it for a kill 23-17
Esko kill 23-18...timeout Sauk Centre, Coach Klaphake's first of game two
Sauk hits out of bounds to the left 23-19
Sauk ace block 24-19 to end a 10-4 run by Esko
Ashley Kollman serves...but after two returns Esko knocks down an ace tip 24-20
Game point! Krista kill off of a block 25-20

Game three...
We've got a barn-burner going in game three. After it was tied 3-3, the Mainstreeters pulled ahead 6-3 only to see Esko tie it again at 8-8.
Esko then went ahead 10-8 after the Eskimos earned a kill off the block.
Esko hits long after going up 11-8 and now it's 11-10
Krista block and it's tied 11-11
Krista right side kill 12-11
Sauk hit out of bounds 12-12
Esko kill into a block 12-13
Esko ace serve 12-14
Esko kill in the middle 12-15...timeout by Coach Klaphake
Sauk scores three straight, the third point on an ace block 15-15 tie
Esko kill 15-16
Krista kill in the middle 16-16 tie
Esko hit into the net 17-16 lead and timeout Esko
Macy kill glances off an Esko bump 18-16
Esko net violation 19-16
Macy kill off the block 20-16!...put the hammer down!
Sauk serve out of bounds 20-17
Esko kill 20-18
Esko lift call 21-18
Sauk scores again 22-18 and Esko burns the final timeout
Esko kill 22-19
Macy kill off the block 23-19
Esko kill 23-20
Sauk wins 25-21!

Fifth place is a truly spectacular showing for this Sauk Centre volleyball team that finishes 30-5 overall. Enough said.

Here we go again, game five begins...

Game five begins at 20:33...what a crazy roller-coaster!
Maple Lake block 0-1
Maple Lake block 0-2
Sauk error 0-3
Maple Lake hit out of bounds 1-3
Jena serves...Macy block! 2-3
Sauk net violation 2-4
Maple Lake kill by Rachel 2-5 not good
Macy kill! 3-5
Liz serves...Macy kill! multiple returns by both teams, Krista had an incredible back row save...4-5
Macy kill again! Irish bump glances out of bounds, Jena with a perfect set 5-5 and Coach Kiebel calls a timeout at 20:37
Ahhh...Sauk serves long 5-6
Maple Lake's fronts collide, 6-6
Macy serves...Irish kill with no block 6-7
Ashley K splits the back row defense, kill! 7-7 tie
Krista kill! Sauk Centre pulls ahead 8-7****
Maple Lake kill, Sauk bumps out of bounds 8-8 tie
Another Irish kill, Sauk bump it out...8-9 and Coach Klaphake fires a timeout at 20:41 hours
Maple Lake block goes out, Krista kill! 9-9 tie
Ashley K serves...Sauk hits long by inches...9-10
Krista in the clutch! 10-10 tie and Macy comes to the front...
Sauk in the net, 10-11
Maple Lake lift call! 11-11 tie...cliffhanger again
Jena serves...Sauk in the net with a bad pass 11-12
Maple Lake scores...not good! 11-13 and a Sauk Centre timeout (20:45)
Irish serve into the net! 12-13
Liz serves...Macy kill!!!! YES! 13-13 tie
TIME OUT IRISH...
Irish kill by Rachel 14-14 tie...OH my.
MACY ACE BLOCK! 15-14
Maple Lake is blocked again! 16-14...what a most incredible win!

Up next: an 11 a.m. match on Saturday against Esko in the consolation championship...GO STREETERS! Bring home some hardware!

Be sure to catch post-match notes at http://www.saukherald.com later tonight and in the morning too.

Game four...finish them off, Mainstreeters!

Game four begins at 20:08 hours...
Let's go Mainstreeters!
Macy ace block! 1-0
Jena ace block! 2-0
Kill #17 of the night for Macy...3-0
Irish hit into the net 4-0!
Sauk hitting error 4-1
Irish kill 4-2
Irish error 5-2
Irish hit past the baseline! 6-2
Jena ace serve! 7-2
Macy kill with a cross court attack 8-2
Sauk hitting error 8-3
Irish ace serve 8-4
Irish ace serve again 8-5
Irish ace serve again 8-6
Irish scores 8-7 for a much-needed side out
Irish serve out of bounds! 9-7
Liz serves...Ashley Kollman kill! 10-7
Irish error with an Ashley K kill 11-7
Irish kill by Shelby Rachel through a block 11-8
Irish serves long 12-8
Irish kill 12-9
Irish kill by Knott 12-10
Macy kill! 13-10
Irish kill by Rachel on Decker's short set 13-11
Irish service error 14-11
Sauk line error (net violation) 14-12
Sauk bump out of bounds 14-13
Irish kill by Puncochar to tie it 14-14 it's gut-check time for Sauk, gotta shut them down and do this in four!
Krista finds an opening for a kill 15-14 clock reads 20:18
Sauk jump serve into the net 15-15 tie
Sauk scores, Irish bump out of bounds 16-15
Sauk scores, Irish hitting error 17-15
Sauk hit out of bounds 17-16
Sauk bad block, Irish score 17-17 tie
Irish score with an ace attack 17-18, they take the lead; Coach Klaphake calls a timeout at 20:21 hours
Irish ace serve 17-19
Irish hits out of bounds, that helps! 18-19
Liz serves...both teams return the ball five+ times, then Irish hit out of bounds, 19-19 tie!
Maple Lake kill, 19-20
Maple Lake kill by Rachel, 19-21 and Coach Klaphake calls his 2nd timeout at 20:24 hours
Macy delivers! Ace attack! 20-21
Macy serves...multiple returns, Krista kill! 21-21 tie
Maple Lake hits out of bounds on a clean hit 22-21...Coach Kiebel calls a timeout at 20:27 hours
Sauk hit into the net 22-22 tie...we've got a cliffhanger on our hands in this game
Krista in the clutch! Ace attack! 23-22 lead
Maple Lake kill 23-23 tie
Irish Puncochar kill 23-24 as they drive it to the back row, Sauk bumps it but the pass goes to the floor...crazy, just crazy
Irish Knott kill 23-25 final with the clock reading 20:29 hours

Time to dig deep Mainstreeters, you've got guts and heart on your side!