Girls’ Swim & Dive Makes Waves at Sections
Congratulations to our Red Knights who qualified for the MSHSL State girls’ swim & dive meet this year!
2023 Highlights
The BSM Girls swimming and diving team have had an incredible season, including breaking a numerous pool pool records, finishing third in the Section 2A meet, and qualifying a number of Red Knight for the 2023 MSHSL Girls Swimming & Diving State Tournament!
- Section 2A: Third Place
- Section 2A Champions: Emma Rudowsky, Bailey Monette
- Section 2A Coach of the Year: Ryan Miksch
- Section 2A Diving Coach of the Year: Craig Croaston
- All State: Emma Rudowsky, Bailey Monette
- Class AA MSHSCA Gold Academic Award: 3.61 GPA
- Metro West Conference Champions
- All Conference: Emma Rudowsky, Bailey Monette
- All Conference Honorable Mention: Siri Gudmundson, Lilly Schilling
- Section 2A Results
- Souvenir MSHSL Tournament Program
- 2023 MSHSL Girls Class A Swim & Dive Finals Meet Program
- Individual Champions by Event thru 2023
- 2023 Class A Finals-Results
MSHSL State Tournament Participants – Individual Champions by Event thru 2023
BSM Section 2A Results:
- Diving – Bailey Monette ‘27 (Champion)
- 200 Free – Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (Champion)
- 100 Free – Siri Gudmundson ‘25 (2nd Place)
- 500 Free / Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (Champion) & Harriet White ‘25 (2nd Place)
BSM State Class A Results:
- Diving – Bailey Monette ‘27 (2nd Place)
- 200 Free – Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (10th Place)
- 100 Free – Siri Gudmundson ‘25 (18th Place)
- 500 Free / Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (4th Place) & Harriet White ‘25 (11th Place)
- Varsity Head Coach: Nate Stone
Swim Team Dives Into Season with a New Coach
Last year the BSM Girls Swim and Dive team was coached by Ryan Miksch. However, due to his newborn baby, he decided to take a step back this year. Now, the team is welcoming a new coach: Nate Stone. He’s been coaching alongside returning assistant coach Katie Schmidt and new assistant coach Alena Paulson.
—Knight Errant, the student news organization of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Welcome Coach Stone
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Nate Stone to the position of Head Varsity Girls Swim and Dive Coach. His background includes a wealth of coaching and administrative experiences that will help him successfully oversee not only the varsity team, but also BSM’s entire girls program, which includes students in grades 7-12.
Coach Stone is a local product who attended St. Louis Park High School where he was a 6 time Varsity letter winner, school record holder, served as a two time team captain, and earned all conference and all state accolades. After high school, Stone matriculated to the University of St. Thomas where he was the 2019 MIAC Champion in 200 Butterfly, a four time all MIAC conference swimmer and served as team captain his senior year. Nate graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering and currently works for Graco, Inc in Northeast Minneapolis.
Coach Stone has served as an assistant coach for both the St. Louis Park boys and girls programs and is currently a coach with Hopkins based Hurricanes Swim Team.
Welcome Coach Carlson
We would also like to announce the appointment of Madeline Carlson as Head Varsity Girls Dive Coach. Madeline spent her high school career diving at Blake and her collegiate career at Kenyon College. Her coaching background included stints with Bloomington public schools and a Colorado club named Norco Diving.
At Kenyon Madeline competed in the NCAA DIII Championships meet where she placed in the semi finals on both boards. As a senior at Kenyon she earned All American honors. Coach Carlson graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in Environmental Studies and from Colorado State University with an MA in Ecosystem Science.
We are #BSMproud to welcome Coach Stone and Coach Carlson to our community and wish them and the team success
Girls Swim Team’s Dedication Carries them to State
The six swimmers that advance raced in various events. White and Rudowsky competed in the 500 freestyle and 100 fly races. Along with their events, the team also qualified for the 200-free relay with Schilling, Gudmunson, Gadtke, and Kirkvold and the 400-free relay with White, Rudowksy, Gudmunson, and Schilling. “I’m excited to have my last meet at State and show off what I’ve been working towards this season,” Gudmunson said.
The team prepared the whole week at practice, so they were ready to compete in front of a big audience. Since sections were just a week before, their practices were light, so they weren’t sore or tight for State. “We’ve had to do more yards because we just had sections so it messed up our whole practice routine, so we’ve been going hard but also light to ensure we are rested for this weekend,” White said.
The team’s run at sections was very successful. They finished second overall, and Rudowsky received first place in her individual events. The team is a part of the 2A section, which has very talented teams, including both Breck and Blake. “Everyone is good at state, but Breck and Blake I think are our biggest competition because we compete against them a lot in our sections, and Breck won our section, [so] we [wanted] to beat them,” White said.
The state tournament was a two-day event: Friday, November 8th was the state prelims, and Saturday, November 9th was the finals. It’s an all-day event on both days, so the team got to be together all day and cheer each other on. “On Friday, in the morning we go warm up at the state pool which is at the University of Minnesota, and then we’ll usually get food as a team after. The actual meet starts at noon, and then we get back to school around three, and then Saturday it’s the same thing,” Gudmunson said.
—Knight Errant, the student news organization of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Schedules and Scores
Photo Gallery
Girls’ Swim & Dive Off to State
Congratulations to our Red Knight swimmers who qualified for the 2023 Minnesota High School League (MSHSL) Girls Swimming & Diving State Tournament!
The girls’ swim and dive team made a splash at the Section 2A meet on November 8-10 finishing in third place with BSM student-athletes qualifying for State in their respective events:
- Diving – Bailey Monette ‘27 (Champion)
- 200 Free – Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (Champion)
- 100 Free – Siri Gudmundson ‘25 (2nd Place)
- 500 Free / Emma Rudowsky ‘26 (Champion) & Harriet White ‘25 (2nd Place)
from BSMschool.org
The Knight Errant is the official student news publication of Benilde-St. Margaret’s Senior High School. All content is produced by the students of the Journalistic Writing, Editorial Leadership, and Graphic Design classes at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School.
A student-run publication, the online edition is updated on a daily basis and the news-magazine is published quarterly. The role and goal of the Knight Errant staff is to inform and entertain their readers through accurate and factual reports.
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The Benilde-St. Margaret’s Swim team has been off to a great start this season. A highlight so far for the team was when sophomore Emma Rudowsky broke Breck’s pool record in the 500 yard freestyle. She beat the record with the time of 5.14.21, by one second.
On August 29th the girls swim team took on Breck. Rudowsky was signed up to race in the 500 freestyle event, and she had breaking the pool record in mind. “I went into it trying to break the record and I was a little surprised when I actually did because I was excited,” Rudowsky said.
Rudowsky has been swimming since she was in first grade. Her parents and friends have had the biggest influences on her and her swimming career. “My family and my friends are my biggest supporters because they always ask me questions about it and are really interested in how I do and always push me,” Rudowsky said.
With sections and state only about a month away, Miksch is training Rudowsky to do great and improve even more in the upcoming meets. At practice everyday, Miksch plans very high endurance practices that will help her succeed in the state meet specifically. “Last year in her individual events, Emma was 12th in the 200 free and 6th in the 500 free at state. I fully expect her to place higher in whatever events she swims this year,” Miksch said.
The future of Rudowsky’s swimming career looks bright. She hopes that one day she will have the opportunity to swim at the collegiate level. Her ability to pursue that is very high, considering all the training she does year round. “I only see Emma improving from here. With her work ethic and positive mindset, she’ll continue to succeed in high school and beyond,” Miksch said.
Girls’ swim and dive has had major success recently, especially in diving. This has drawn attention to the team, more specifically the diver who broke both pool and school records, freshman Bailey Monette.
Monette has broken two pool records along with BSM diving records. She originally started diving when she was 12 years old due to a gymnastics injury and has done it ever since. For the past two and a half years, Monette has been diving for Minnesota Diving Academy, a club team that is conducted at the University of Minnesota.
Bailey is a rookie on the BSM Girls Swim and Dive Team and she has quickly made her mark. The specific record she recently broke was the 2011 BSM school record and the Mound Westonka pool record. She did this by scoring a very impressive 258.35. Soon after, she broke the Chanhassen pool record and her own personal best by scoring 278.90. “You always want to break records so it’s great to break them but at every meet, all I want to do is beat my personal best,” Monette said.
— Bailey Monette
Monette’s accomplishments have caused excitement throughout both the girls’ swim and dive team and the school. Breaking records doesn’t happen very often, which is seen as a BSM diver hasn’t broken the record since 2011. Her records are especially impressive because they have beat pool records, meaning they are the best scores the pools have seen. “We haven’t really had a lot of swimmers break records. So it’s really surprising and a big accomplishment for our school,” junior swimmer Natalie Lamers said.
In past years, BSM has not had the strongest diving team to accompany the swimmers, so Monette is changing that stigma. Diving can be critical for winning meets overall so the enthusiasm the team has for Monette’s successes is due to her incredible skills. “Watching her dive is so entertaining and it’s so impressive. Every time I watch her I am on the edge of my seat,” senior swimmer Audrey Taylor said.
This year’s swim team is excited about what else Monnette will accomplish the rest of the season and in the future. With her success, the team is hoping to have more divers join the team. “She’s our first very accomplished diver on our team and we hope to get more,” Lamers said.
