The big duel meet of the season

It's almost here -- the most anticipated duel meet of the season. That would be Madison East hosting Madison Memorial, 5 p.m. Wednesday. Get there early -- East High's pool isn't exactly overflowing with seating.

The duel meet features the two teams that battled back and forth last year for the Div. 1 state title. East won its first state title by 3.5 points over Memorial by extracting nearly as many points as possible out of its six swimmers. Both teams returned a strong core of swimmers from last year's meet, and have been ranked among the top three teams all season long.

Truth be told, Memorial is the favorite to win the meet between the two teams. The Spartans are the kind of team that dominates duel meet -- lots of depth to go along with strong relays and solid swimmers in every event. It's the kind of lineup designed to win duel meets. East counters with some of the state's very best swimmers, and three top-flight relays.

In the end, the final score may matter less than some of the individual matchups -- will Memorial's Jackie Powell and East's Aja Van Hout go head-to-head in the 200 free, where they own the state's top two times? Or the 500 free, which Van Hout won last year at state and Powell finished 4th? How will Memorial sprinter Kayla Smith match up against the Martin sisters, Ruby and Ivy, in the freestyle sprints? Or the potential match-up between Memorial's Kelsie Saxe and East's Becca Soderholm in both the 200 IM and the 100 fly?

Still, the individual races may pale in comparison to what promises to be a real shoot-out in the relays. East won state last year in large part because two of its three relays finished ahead of Memorial at the state meet. Notably, the eight-hundreths-of-a-second win by East over Memorial in the 200 free relay -- and the four-point swing it produced -- proved to be the difference between first and second place.

It should be a great start to what will be a series of matchups between these two top squads in the coming weeks -- they'll face off again at the Big Eight Conference meet Nov. 1, the Middleton sectional Nov. 8, and the state Div. 1 meet Nov. 15.