D2 state meet recap

In what will be remembered as the fastest D2 state meet in history, two-time defending champ DeForest -- as expected -- won its third straight title without the aid of a single win in any event.

DeForest's depth overwhelmed the competition, as the Norskies scored 236.5 points to easily outdistance Grafton (180). DeForest's win was both impressive and somewhat underwhelming; the team scored nearly 30 points fewer than their seed times predicted (going into the meet, DeForest was seeded to score 263 points). The Norskies, who qualified 15 individual entries for the meet as well as all three relays, display a depth of talent that no D2 team can match. Several DeForest swimmers did improve their seed times, but their time drops weren't nearly at the level displayed by other swimmers at what was a very fast meet.

In the end, DeForest essentially won the state meet the week before, when they overwhelmed a very good Baraboo sectional and qualified nearly every swimmer they entered. There is more than one path to a state championship -- DeForest two years ago came from behind to win by having nearly every swimmer peak at state -- and the Norskies proved that loading up and swimming well the week before state is one way of doing it. Congratulations to the Norskies -- they graduated a lot of top-flight talent last year, but rallied around a strong returning corps of swimmers.

As for the rest of the D2 state meet:

-- It was fast and got faster as the night went on. A pretty good indication came in the 200 freestyle, when Brookfield Academy's Kelsey Hojan-Clark went 1:50.27 to win, just missing the all-time state D2 record by .33 seconds. She was followed closely by Shorewood's Elli Sellinger, who touched out in 1:50.87 -- both times were faster than any of the seed times for the D1 state meet in the 200 free.

-- Three all-time state records were broken: Monona Grove's 200 free relay (Kelsey Millin, Tess Becker, Elizabeth Emmerich, Hayley Martin, 1:38.95; 1:39.08 old record); Green Lake/Berlin's Siri Smits in the 100 backstroke (55.83; 56.48 old); and Plymouth freshman sensation Kate Criter in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.31; 1:05.54). The breaststroke was certainly the most impressive event of the night; Delavan-Darien's Emily McClellan broke the old state record swimming out of lane 5 in the first heat. Three other swimmers besides Kriter then topped the old record in the final heat. How fast was it? Two-time defending state champ Jennah Haney of Milton dropped more than two seconds off her seed time, beat the old state record by 1.8 seconds, and still finished runner-up to Criter. In addition, Shorewood's Clare Chamberlain came within .06 seconds of the all-time state record in the 200 IM (she swam a 2:03.95, cutting nearly seven seconds off her seed time), and Hojan-Clark just missed the state record in the 500 free with a time of 4:54.18 (.24 seconds off the record).

-- The night's most poignant moment came during the 100 free, won by Sauk Prairie's Abby Diehl. The 5th-seeded Diehl (who had an oustanding night) out-touched MG's Martin, who was coming off a win in the 50 free earlier in the meet and had dominated the 100 free all season long, by a mere four-hundreths of a second. Martin, initially disappointed in the loss, looked over to see who had beaten her, and then raced over to congratulate Diehl, like Martin a senior swimming in her last high school meet. The two have been competing against each other, at conference and sectional swim meets as well as state, for four years, and have developed a close friendship. After the race, as teams were gathering for the 200 free relay, Martin and Diehl sat off to the side, away from all of the other swimmers, chatting away. "She got a gold medal, and so do I," Martin said after the race. "I'm so proud of her." Both swimmers came away with a second gold medal, with Martin anchoring the winning MG 200 free relay, and Diehl splitting an anchor leg of 51.79 to lead her Sauk Prairie 400 free relay team to victory.

-- Why so fast? D2 swimming has gotten faster in the past several years, as qualifying times for state for the most part are lower than they were five years ago. It's pretty clear the benefits of year-round club swimming -- a staple of top D1 programs -- have filtered down to the D2 level, where most of the top swimmers come out of strong club programs. D2 has also benefitted from an influx of top-flight talent in the last two years; five of the eight individual events at the state meet this year were won by freshmen or sophomores. But it's also hard not to think the newly available fast suits don't have some role -- nearly all of the top finishers at the meet wore some version of the new suit technology, and the times posted (and the depth of fast times registered at the meet) leads one to conclude the suits do play a role in generating extra speed.