Edina Swimming Trio Highlights Team's Depth

girls swimming and diving coach Jeff Mace admits his team is uniquely deep in the breaststroke event.

A year ago, three of his swimmers—Heather Laedke, Madeleine Eden and Olivia Anderson—all swam All-America times in the event (As an eighth-grader, Anderson was too young to be officially acknowledged), meaning their times were among the top 100 in the country.

“What I told the girls at the start of the year is in dual meets, if we’re even after the backstroke, I like our chances,” Mace said.

According to a Star Tribune ranking, Anderson (1:05.13), Laedke (1:05.73) and Eden (1:06.71) currently occupy the top three breaststroke times in the state. It is that type of depth the Hornets hope they possess across the board as they head into the Section 6AA True Team meet on Saturday.

When Edina hosts the section event at 12 p.m. at Art Downey Aquatic Center, they’ll be attempting to again reach a state meet that caters to squads with athletic ability across the board—something the Hornets believe they possess.

In True Team, every athlete’s finish counts toward team points—unlike the traditional top-8 format in the state swimming finals in November. That means the team with a wider range of depth will win the meet, not those with smaller groups of talent.

“I think it really shows the whole team together because everyone scores,” Laedke said. “It’s not about the superstars. It’s about everyone on the team. That really motivates everyone.”

Edina hopes this is the year that depth get them to the top.

In eight years of True Team competition dating back to 2004, the Hornets have never failed to reach the state meet. But even with three second-place finishes, Edina hasn’t come away as the champions.

“It’s definitely a goal of ours,” Eden said. “But I think we’re all really excited, which helps. We talk about it every day, focusing on it.”

Perhaps the team’s deepest event is its breaststroke. It’s a position that by the end of the year could again produce multiple All-Americans from the same team in the same season—something that speaks to the Hornets’ widespread talent.

Mace said it’s partially natural ability and partially a work ethic that pumps through all the girls on his team. But no matter how you analyze it, he said it’s a unique situation.

“When you think about all the programs across the country, and we have 80 kids on our team. If you have teams of 60, 70, 80 kids across the country, that’s a lot of girls swimming,” Mace said. “To get three like that on one team, that’s pretty special. Unfortunately we don’t have a breaststroke relay—I’d like our chances.”

Still, this trio get to lean on one another for motivation throughout the year. Like the entire Hornets roster, they hope that drive in the pool will help push them to the top of the True Team state meet this fall.

“We work hard at practice, and we try to keep improving,” Anderson said. “At practice it’s great, because we are all striving for the same goals. We’re trying to keep pushing ourselves.”