How good is McFarland? Good enough to win seven of the 10 events at the Badger Conference Relays meet Tuesday night with one of their best swimmers -- distance swimmer Graham Thoresen -- sitting out. McFarland easily won the meet, 292-212 over runner-up Milton, with a demonstration of both strong swimming and very good depth.
The relay meet is a bit goofy -- it consists of 10 events which are rarely swum in other meets. Some have eight swimmers per relay, and others consist of events in which only one stroke is swum. Still, it's a good indicator of both a team's depth and versatility.
For McFarland, senior Brandon O'Donnell looked particularly sharp, leading his team to wins in the 4 x 100 IM relay, the 300 fly relay, and the 400 free relay. For instance, O'Donnell swam an opening leg of 48.30 in the 400 free relay, a time comparable to his anchor relay split of 47.65 at the D2 state meet last year when he brought McFarland from well behind in the 400 free relay to win. The Spartans also showed they could be a power for years to come, with strong performances from a number of freshmen, including Brandon's brother Ryan, along with Collin Morgan, Ryan Krattinger, and Max Schimanski.
As for other swimmers at the Badger Conference meet, Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights' Tyler Lentz looked very strong, with a 53.83 split on his fly leg of the team's winning 400 medley relay, along with a 53.13 opening backstroke leg on the team's winning 3 X 100 backstroke relay.
Edgewood's Chase Stephens also had an eye-opening 48.30 anchor-leg free split for the Crusaders' 400 medley relay, which finished second to Sauk. That's more than two seconds faster than Stephens swam on a relay leg last year at the state D2 meet.
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