Go fast or go home -- sectional round-ups

Swimmers are usually a quiet lot -- they tend to be more reflective than boastful, more focused than animated. But they often make up for it with their T-shirts. "Go fast or go home" is a favorite.

That about sums up what it took to make it to state this year in both D1 and D2. Cut-off times were much faster than a year ago in nearly all races, and the depth of quality performances was evident throughout the six D1 and four D2 sectionals. In D1, for instance, the cutoff to qualify for the 100-yard breaststroke was nearly a second faster than a year ago. In D2, 10 swimmers qualified for the 100-yard butterfly with times under one minute, compared to three swimmers a year ago.

In D1, the Waukesha South/Mukwanago sectional featured a terrific contest between the hosts and Hartland-Arrowhead, with HA eventually prevailing 391-362. Arrowhead got all 18 of its entries through to state, including three divers. Muskego also made a strong showing at the sectional with some top finishes and finished in third place with 297 points. It was the fastest sectional in the state; of the top three seeds in the 11 swimming events (33 fastest seeded swimmers in the state meet), 17 came out of the WS/M sectional.

Over at the always competitive Middleton sectional, Madison Memorial showed again that superior depth pays off. The Spartans racked up 375.5 points for an easy win over Middleton (315). Defending state champs Madison East finished third with 302 points. East won seven of the 11 events, led by Ruby Martin (50/100 free) and Aja Van Hout (200 IM/500 free), who also swam on the team's winning 200 and 400 free relays. But none of the Purgolders three relays earned top seeds at the state meet. For Memorial, coach Jason Verhelst achieved a first -- all 18 swimmers entered into the sectional meet qualified for state. The Spartans were led by junior Jackie Powell, who earned top-three seeds in the state meet in both the 200 free and the 100 back. But the news coming out of the Middleton sectional is that many of the swimmers who did qualify for state won't be seeded as high as they were at last year's state meet.

Also swimming well in the D1 sectionals was Wausau East, which won the Hudson sectional and sent all three relays to the final heat of the state meet. Other sectional winners were Neenah, Mequon Homestead, and Racine Case.

In D2, the big news was DeForest's dominant win at the very deep and fast Baraboo sectional. The Norskies, two-time defending state champs, won their fifth straight sectional title with 358 points, an 82-point margin over second-place Edgewood. DeForest qualified swimmers for state in every single event save for diving, and won two of the three relays (medley, 400 free). What made DeForest's showing all the more impressive was the quality of swimming at the Baraboo sectional; fully 40 percent of the qualifiers for the state D2 meet came out of Baraboo.

In Plymouth, a deep Sturgeon Bay-Sevastopol team held off Grafton, 319-296. Both teams qualified all three relays for the state meet, plus several individual qualifiers. In Cudahay, a surging Elkhorn team won the sectional with a 313-286 win over Whitnall. Elkhorn has been swimming extremely well as of late, and both of their freestyle relays ended up with top-three seeds for the state meet. Menomonie won the Stevens Point sectional, but doesn't look to be a big factor in the team race at the state D2 meet.