McFarland on a roll

The McFarland steamroller keeps moving along, as the Spartans romped to an easy win Saturday at the Blackhawk Invite hosted by Ft. Atkinson.

McFarland, the defending D2 state champs, won the meet with 490 points, topping a very good Verona squad that scored 437 points. Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights finished third with 324 points. For a comparison, a very good McFarland squad last year scored 319 points against most of the same teams, so Saturday's meet represented a remarkable 171-point improvement.

The meet got off to a rousing start, with McFarland, Verona and Sauk battling it out in the opening 200-yard medley relay. Sauk emerged with the win (1:41.86) with a terrific come-from-behind anchor leg (21.53 split in the free) by Matt Friede. Verona (1:42.19) and McFarland (1:42.31) followed closely.

But losing the opening race was about the only thing that didn't go to form for the Spartans. As expected, the tandem of Brian Heiser and Graham Thoresen dominated the distance events, going 1-2 in each, with Heiser winning the 200 in a terrific early-season time of 1:47.42 and Thoresen setting a pool record in winning the 500 in 4:50.15 (he broke the pool record of former D2 500 free state champ Rion Epping of Delavan-Darien, who watched his record fall while at the meet coaching his alma mater). Freshman Ryan O'Donnell won the 100 back in 54.29, while his senior brother Brandon won the 100 fly (54.22) by more than a second, and finished 2nd in the 200 IM. In maybe the most impressive swim of the meet, the O'Donnells teamed with Heiser and Thoresen to win the 400 free relay in 3:17.15, a time that was faster than McFarland's winning time in the event last year at state.

(Mind-numbing stat of the week -- McFarland's splits on the 400 free relay. They were: Brandon O'Donnell -- 49.06; Heiser -- 49.18; Ryan O'Donnell -- 49.47; Thoresen -- 49.44. There are only a handful of D1 teams that can put together four sub-50 freestylers; the number of D2 teams capable of doing so, it's safe to say, is quite small.)

Also impressing for McFarland was its depth; the Spartans in the past few years have been a squad reliant on several top-flight swimmers. With the addition of several top-shelf freshmen, the team has depth that it has lacked in the past. That should serve the Spartans well down the road this season.