Fast times at Middleton High

A friend of mine emailed me a few weeks ago, suggesting I watch the early-season times of Madison East's Aja Van Hout, and hinting the sophomore had been tearing through workouts at the East High pool.

No kidding! East came away victorious in its first meet of the season at Middleton last Friday in a matchup of D1 powers, 87-83. It was an solid win for the defending state champs. But Van Hout swam some eye-popping times. She first swam an impressive 1:52.69 200 free, a new school record (and a good one, considering it had been held by Abby Soderholm, now at the UW, who set it while finishing 2nd in the event at state in 2006).

Then Van Hout turned around and -- in the event she won at state as a freshman -- swam a 4:54.65 500 free, about 6/10ths of a second off the all-time state record in the event. To put that into perspective, only Van Hout last year as a freshman (4:58.68) and one other D1 swimmer in the past decade -- Middleton's Courtney Veerman, who did it twice -- have ever swam below 5 minutes at the state meet. Veerman's record of 4:54.03 is a good one, too, considering she broke a mark that had stood since 1992.

Van Hout's performance, however, was just one in a string of impressive swims by the Purgolders against Middleton. The team won 10 of the 11 events, with only Middleton's Kayla Beckwith able to break through in the 100 free. Senior Ruby Martin swam a 23.75 50 free, nearly as fast as she swam to win the event last year at state, and a 57.83 100 back, a time that would've won state last year. Becca Soderholm also won her two specialities -- the 200 IM and 100 fly -- and the team swept all three relays with solid times (e.g., a 400 free relay time of 3:33.63 that was less a second off East's 2nd-place time at state last year).

The performance by East led first-year Middleton coach Lauren Wencel to say this to the Wisconsin State Journal: "Their top swimmers are at an elite level. They're fantastic swimmers."