 | ||||||
| ||||||
2007 Main Page Team Picture Schedule JV Schedule Roster Results State Qualifying Times State Qualifers | ||||||
The team placed 11th at the MSHSAA Championships. The following earned All-State Honors: Kara O'Neill (200 med. relay), Tracy Tucci (200 med. relay), Josie Vignatelli (200 med. relay), Chelsey Weatherford (200 med. relay, 100 yd butterfly, 500 yd freestyle). Complete results.
The National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association and Speedo has recognized seniors Carolyn Schorgl, Emily Schultz, and Mary Ismert as Academic All Americans for the 2007-2008 school year. Of the almost 300,000 in their sport, these young ladies are recognized as part of the top 2% of all student athletes in high school swimming and diving in the country. In addition to those awards, NISCA and Speedo have also recognized the Sion Swim and Dive program as one of the top swim teams in the country for their academic accomplishments during the 2007-2008 school year. They have been selected as a Team Academic All American for their cumulative 3.466 GPA
Sion swimmer helps others with love of H2O By: Kurt Kloeblen, Staff writer Wednesday, February 6, 2008 4:13 AM CST
Tracy Tucci said she has always felt like she is untouchable in the water.
With the water running over the body, arms stretching out to propel the body forward and legs kicking, not much stops a swimmer.
That is the feeling the Notre Dame de Sion High School senior swimmer has tried to pass on to those with special needs.
Ever since her sophomore year, Tucci has given lessons to swimmers, those competing in the Special Olympics and those just looking for recreation.
“I love everything about it,” Tucci, a Mission Hills resident, said. “After I get done I have a better feeling about the entire world.”
It is only natural for Tucci to be giving swim lessons. She has been a competitive swimmer since the age of 6 and the sport has been a way of life for as long as she can remember.
When it came time for Tucci to pick a service project at Sion, she knew she wanted something a little different than what her peers usually choose.
“No service work really interested me,” Tucci said. “I wanted to try and involve swimming in some way. I worked in the offices with the Special Olympics. I also have some kids on my club team who have Down Syndrome. My mom called and asked if they wanted swim lessons and I have been doing it ever since.”
Tucci said her work with special needs kids has pointed her in a very straight direction toward a career choice – art therapy.
“After the first summer I worked with them I was talking to a teacher at (Sion),” Tucci said. “She is an art therapist for kids with special needs and that really interested me. She gives art lessons and so I started helping give art lessons, too.”
Tucci will head to NCAA Division III College of Wooster in Ohio next fall to swim but said she will major in art therapy.
Tucci describes herself as having a very short attention span, so she said working with those with special needs has taught her some very important life skills.
“You have to have a lot of patience,” Tucci said. “The kids I have are so great. They are well-behaved. I struggle with having very little patience, so it has taught me to be more patient.”
Those who take lessons from Tucci can rest assured they have a strong swimmer doling out the instruction. Tucci has qualified for four different events at the Missouri state meet Feb. 15 and 16 in St. Peters, Mo.
Tucci has qualified for state in the 200 and 500 freestyle and is a member of the 400 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay. Tucci has the 17th-fastest 500 time in the state this year and the 25th-fastest 200 time. Sion ranks eighth in the 400 free relay and seventh in the 200 medley this season.
Tucci said Sion coach Paul Winkler, in his first year at the school, is making quite a difference. Winkler is also a coach at Rockhurst, a perennial state swimming power on the boys side.
“It’s a lot more intense this year,” Tucci said. “He wants to build up a real team. We’ve always been close, but it takes an entire team to win. We used to be separated by those that went to state and those that didn’t. But he helps us realize it takes everyone to succeed. I really like what he’s said.”
Tucci has a goal of placing in an individual event at the state meet and helping her relay teams to a high finish.
However the state meet turns out, it will not take much time to see Tucci out swimming again and showing people how to swim.
She teaches some lessons in her family’s backyard pool to those with and without special needs. She said she anticipates working with swimmers throughout her career.
Tucci said even when she finishes competitive swimming there will be no way to keep her out of the water.
“I could not possibly live my life without swimming,” Tucci said. “I have some friends that complain about it, but then you take them out of the water, they miss it. I could never stay away.
1/28/08 The Swim and Dive team placed 3rd at the Springfield Invitational this past weekend. The weekend was started off on a strong note as divers Regan Wiley and Courtney Allen finished 8th and 9th respectively. This is the second week in a row the pair have finished in the top 10 at an invitational. The momentum was carried over into the meet as the medley relay team, comprised of Kara O'Neill, Josie Vignatelli, Chelsey Weatherford, and Tracy Tucci, dropped 1.5 seconds to place 3rd in the event. Lisa Tucci also shined in the 200 IM by placing 5th and Weatherford won the 100 butterfly, the first time this season a Sion swimmer has won an event at an invitational.
1/23/08 With State quickly approaching, the Swim and Dive team had a great weekend at their last invitational in the KC area. The team placed 3rd at the Greater KC Invite and was paced by their relays, which all scored in the top 6. Other finalists included Lisa Tucci in the IM and Fly, Chelsey Weatherford in the Fly, Kara O'Neill in the 50 and Backstroke, Emily Schultz in the breaststroke, and Tracy Tucci in the 500. Also swimming on Day 2 were Josie Vignatelli, Abby Klover, Becky Linville, Mary Ismert, and Katie Meister. The dive team also made solid progress as Sion had two divers place in the top 10; sophomores Regan Wiley (her second consecutive top 10 finish) and Courtney Allen. This was Courtney's first invitational. Congrats to all the girls who competed....the team heads to Springfield this weekend for the Glendale Invitational.
1/13/08 The Varsity swim team took their first road trip of the season and headed to St. Louis to compete in the Parkway South Invitational, the fastest Invitational in the state. The team placed 6th out of 12 teams from around the state. A total of 17 "personal best" times were placed and finalists included seniors Kara O'Neill, Emily Schultz, and Tracy Tucci, junior Lisa Tucci, sophomore Chelsey Weatherford, and freshmen Josie Vignatelli, Becky Linville, and Abby Klover. Regan Wiley also became the first Sion diver to place in the top 10 at an invitational. A special congrats also goes out to freshman Becky Linville, who qualified for the state championship for the first time in the breaststroke. The team is back in action this weekend at the Greater Kansas City Invitational at Henley Aquatic Center.
The JV team was also in action this weekend as they competed in the Blue Springs JV Invitational. Top times of the season were swam by freshmen Jordan Johnson, Alli Kuhls, and Avery Nickerson, while the 200 Free Relay team of freshmen Becky Ramm and Melanie Weinrich, and sophomores Sarah Jane Able and Rayna Healey won the event. The JV team heads back to competition this weekend to compete in the Raytown Invitational.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 10, 2008 10:15 PM Rockhurst swim coaches take over de Sion, too By BOB LUDER The Kansas City Star
For as long as he can remember, Paul Winkeler wanted to be a coach. As a young boy growing up in St. Louis, Winkeler was a die-hard fan of his hometown teams — the baseball Cardinals and especially his beloved Blues in hockey. “If the Blues ever won a Stanley Cup, I’d just cry,” he said. “I’m just a sports junkie. If I’m at home and the TV’s on, it’s on ESPN.” Winkeler realized it was unlikely he’d grow up to be another Tommy Herr or Brett Hull, but he knew with hard work he could stay involved in sports and make a positive influence by becoming a coach. So that became his dream. Still, water never played much of a role in his career aspirations. That’s why it’s a bit odd that an out-of-the-blue meeting with a high school athletic director nine years ago led to Winkeler becoming a coach in — of all sports — swimming. It’s a sport he knew little about. Flash forward to November, when Winkeler led the Rockhurst High School swimming and diving team to its fourth consecutive Missouri state team championship. He has built the latest Rockhurst sports dynasty, and now he’s trying to do it again as the new swim coach at Notre Dame de Sion. He can coach at both schools since the swim season at Rockhurst — a boys school — is in the fall, and the swim season at de Sion — a girls school — is in the winter. “If I didn’t think we could win at Sion, I wouldn’t have come here,” Winkeler says. “I see a lot of the same qualities here that I found at Rockhurst.” ••• Winkeler, 32, remembers it as if it were yesterday. He’d just moved over to Rockhurst in the fall of 1999 after two years of coaching track and starting the girls softball program at St. Teresa’s Academy. The plan was to coach baseball, but the powers that be at the Rock had something else in mind. “One day, Tom Murphy, the principal, called me into his office,” Winkeler said. “He asked me if I wanted to be a swim coach. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about.” Winkeler grudgingly agreed to the assignment, with one condition. “I told him I’d do it if … if … I could also coach the freshman baseball team,” he said. Agreed. Winkeler became the Hawklets’ swimming coach. Of course, he knew nothing about swimming. But … “I know how to put together teams,” he said. “I know how to work with kids and athletes. That’s a big part of it.” Rockhurst placed 26th at the state meet the season before Winkeler took over the program. His first season, with just 15 boys on the squad, the Hawklets finished 22nd. “We were practicing just four days a week,” Winkeler said. “We had two lanes of a pool we could use. We had no year-round swimmers.” At the end of that first season, Winkeler went into Rockhurst athletic director Doug Bruce’s office to resign. “I told him if anyone comes around who knows something about swimming … ” he said. “And before I could finish, (Bruce) said, ‘They’ll be your assistant coach.’ I said OK.” In Winkeler’s second season, Rockhurst placed eighth at state. In the next three seasons, the squad finished sixth, fourth and fifth, respectively. After that fifth-place finish in 2004, Winkeler had a sort of epiphany. “I was standing on the deck with Mike Brockland, my assistant coach, at state,” Winkeler said. “And I said, I’ve got to embrace the sport or leave it behind.” Winkeler decided to learn more. He joined a swimming coaches association, attended coaching clinics and read anything and everything he could. The next season, Rockhurst won its first state team swimming title, and the Hawklets haven’t lost the reins at the state meet since. “I truly feel I’m a swim coach now,” Winkeler said. “I even dropped baseball.” ••• Winkeler made one of his most important decisions in 2004. The year before, he’d met Margaret Ulett on a blind date. Also from St. Louis, she was a former national-class gymnast who once had competed in a major competition shown on ESPN, something that impressed Winkeler, the sports junkie. Winkeler also happened to need a diving coach, and thought diving and gymnastics had a lot in common. “The first time I asked her, she said no,” Winkeler said. “I said it was just for a year. She said no again.” Margaret finally acquiesced. Only, she expected to be paid, and the job was a volunteer position. It ended up benefiting Winkeler from more than just a professional standpoint when he eventually married Margaret in 2005. “I asked my dad for money for the wedding,” he said. “And I used that to pay her.” The first diver Margaret Winkeler coached, Drew Arensberg, won all-state honors each of the last three seasons and placed fourth at each of the last two state meets. Another Rockhurst diver, Ford McLiney, finished third back in November, as a freshman. “I’ve actually learned a lot through the boys,” said Margaret Winkeler, who is coaching while pregnant with the couple’s second child. “I’m not afraid to ask for help.” Much like her husband. “We’re both humbled by the fact we’ve learned so much through the kids,” Winkeler said. ••• Winkeler has heard the criticisms. Coaching at a private school like Rockhurst, he can simply recruit many of the best year-round swimmers from the KC Blazers club program, throw them in the water and let them go. He doesn’t really have to coach. He hears them. But it doesn’t faze him. After all, most of the barbs come from those left in the Hawklets’ considerable wake the last half decade. “Find me one successful high school program that hasn’t had a lot of good club swimmers,” he said. “You look at a lot of our elite kids, and a lot aren’t year-round swimmers. We win with our depth. “Plus, you have to do things right, or you won’t get those kids out anyway.” The kids say much the same thing. “I never once swam for the Blazers,” said Hawklets senior Pat Dyer, an all-state swimmer each of the last two seasons. “Winkeler’s the only reason I went out for swimming. I couldn’t get myself motivated for any other team.” Teammate Michael Wytock said, “In high school, the turnaround rate is a lot quicker. There’s a lot of turnover in the team from year to year. The biggest strength for a high school coach is to get the athletes to function as a team. I think that’s (Winkeler’s) greatest talent.” ••• When Notre Dame de Sion athletic director Dennis Conaghan learned his swim coach, Kathleen Fendler, would have to cut back on her schedule, he knew where he wanted to go for a head coach. “Always, the first place we look is Rockhurst,” Conaghan said. “We feel lucky to have Wink. He knows his stuff, and the girls like and respect him. “His work ethic impressed us more than anything. Then, we hired his wife because we were tired of losing points by not having a diving team.” At Sion’s first meet last month, Storm swimmers collected 11 state-meet qualifying times. “It’s gone really well,” said Sion senior Tracy Tucci. “Training has been really different. His program is a little more intense and demanding.” Another Sion senior, Kara O’Neill, said: “It’s been really fun. The program’s more intense, but we’ve seen the success at Rockhurst. Everyone’s excited for it. We have a strong group of seniors who have a really good work ethic.” No one is more excited about his new team’s prospects this season — the state meet is Feb. 15-16 at the St. Peters Rec-Plex — than Winkeler himself. “I feel this was the best move for me,” he said. “We’ve had great progress so far. I feel we’re moving in the right direction toward a championship. I feel it’s going to happen.”
Posted on Tue, Jan. 08, 2008 10:15 PM Sion swimmers gain from fourth place finish By BOB LUDER The Kansas City Star The Notre Dame de Sion girls swimming team finished fourth at the Park Hill Invitational last Saturday, but according to coach Paul Winkeler, the Storm gained much more from the competition. “It was a learning meet for us,” he said. “We all swam off-events. It was a good experience for them. “All the girls had much better focus because they were swimming off events. All in all, it was a good day.” Highlighting the Storm’s day was Chelsea Weatherford, who established a personal-best time in winning the 200-yard individual medley, and fellow senior Emily Schultz, who placed second in the 100 breaststroke.
1/08/08 The Sion Swimmin' Women "A Team" placed fourth this past weekend at the Park Hill South Invitational, while the "B Team" placed ninth out of 20 teams. It was a great weekend for the program that got started with divers Haley Fitzpatrick and Courtney Allen finishing 5th and 7th, respectively, in the JV division, while varsity diver Regan Wiley finished 12th. Junior Lisa Tucci finished second in both the 200 and 500 freestyle while achieving state qualifying times in both. Sophomore Chelsey Weatherford won the 200 IM and placed second in the 100 Back, giving her 6 state qualifying times on the year. The team's top swimmer in the breaststroke, senior Emily Schultz, continued to drop time in the event while placing second and fellow seniors Tracy Tucci and Kara O'Neill placed high in the 100 Fly and 200 IM, respectively. The "B team" was led by sophomore Mallory Knott, who helped the 200 free relay score points, and also by freshmen Abby Klover, Katie Meister, and Josie Vignatelli, who all helped lead the team to a top 10 finish.
The JV team is back in action this weekend at the Blue Springs JV Invite, while the Varsity team heads to St. Louis to compete for the first time in the Parkway South Invitational.
12/10/07 "Congrats to the Swim and Dive team as they got the 2007-08 season started in dominating fashion with huge win last night over Park Hill South. Even more impressive was the team coming away with 11 state qualifying times and winning 8 events. Achieving state times for the Swimmin' Women were senior Tracy Tucci, senior Kara O'Neill, senior Emily Schutlz, junior Lisa Tucci, and freshman Josie Vignatelli. The team also had a strong showing by the new dive team, led by sophomore Regan Wiley. Congrats to all who competed last night on such a huge team victory."
For questions about swimming, contact Head Coach Paul Winkeler at coachwink75@yahoo.com.
For questions about diving, contact Head Dive Coach Margaret Winkeler at mwink75@yahoo.com
Contact Kathleen Fendler (Assistant Varsity Coach) at oxlerk@yahoo.com Contact Ellen Haden (JV Coach) at emhaden@aol.com | ||||||
 | | | | | ||