Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Rhinelander to cut swimming?

Rhinelander's Ben Lonsdorf is one of the best sprinters in Division 2; as the top returning finisher from last year's state meet in both the 50 and 100 frees, the senior will certainly be one of the favorites in those races come February.

He may also be the last Rhinelander swimmer to compete for a state title. The Rhinelander school district, faced with a $2 million operating deficit after a failed referendum, has put both girls and boys swimming on the chopping block for next season in an attempt to close the deficit. The school distirct runs an indoor swimming pool, the practice and competition site for both teams. Details here:

http://www.hodagsports.com/stories.html?SKU=20081218132338

Lonsdorf, the team's captain who recently signed a letter-of-intent to swim at D1 Wyoming, lamented the possible loss of the swim program at Rhinelander: “This program, Rhinelander boys swimming as a whole, has been amazingly successful throughout the years. It’s kind of a shame (that it could go).”

It's hard to imagine a better representative for the program than Lonsdorf. He's qualified for the state meet each of his first three years in high school, and has three state runner-up finishes to his name. Last year, he entered the state D2 meet as the top seed in both the 50 and 100 frees, and swam best times in each event, but was edged out in both races for first place.

Afterwards, he expressed disappointment in not winning, but didn't make any excuses, and instead dedicated himself to winning a state title this year. He even moved to Madison this past summer to train with the Badger Aquatic Club and top-notch swimmers such as Purdue signee Sam Niesen of Middleton and state champ Michael Drives of Madison Memorial.

“I guess that just means next year in practice, I’m just going to have to kick my butt even harder and really, really work hard to finally come out with some wins," he told HodagSports.com after last year's state meet. "I think it will happen. I really do.”

Here's hoping Lonsdorf isn't the last Rhinelander swimmer to get a chance at a state title.

Friday, December 26, 2008

News on the swimsuit front

FINA, swimming's international governing body, plans to address the controversy over high-tech swimsuits at a meeting in March. See this from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-12-22-3811161370_x.htm

Any decision or recommendation made by FINA will likely have a big impact on the use of the high-tech suits at the high school level. USA Swimming will likely follow -- or come under intense international pressure to follow -- FINA's recommendations/decisions, and once USA Swimming rules on the issue, expect high school sports associations (under the auspices of the National Federation of State High School Association) to follow in line.

The suits continue to generate controversy, which peaked in Wisconsin during the conclusion of the girls swim season. Several coaches after the girls state high school swim meet noted the fast times swum by both D1 and D2 swimmers at the meet, many of them wearing a version of the high-tech suits. See:

http://wiscswim.blogspot.com/2008/11/fast-suits.html

Any action by FINA is unlikely to have much impact at this season's boys state swim meet. The USA Today article suggests the earliest that any changes regarding the use of such suits would occur would be at the 2009 world swim championships in Italy this summer.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

New Berlin's time?

The New Berlin boys swim co-op, comprised of students from both West and Eisenhower high schools, has usually played second fiddle to Milwaukee-area swim powers like Hartland Arrowhead, Mequon Homestead, and Marquette. But maybe not this year. Coach Paul Lutzke has assembled a strong squad that could make some noise come state meet time.

The co-op is led by senior Byron Butler, the defending state champ in the butterfly. Butler is off to a very good start already this season, with a 52.14 100 fly already on the books and a 52.68 in the backstroke (more than a second faster than he swam at state last year, when he finished 7th). But New Berlin has shown some additional depth this year, with Alexander Rodenkirk posting some strong times in the freestyle sprints, and freshman Jasen Johnson adding depth in areas such as the breaststroke, where he's already posted a state-qualifying time based on last year's time standards.

The co-op showed off its depth of talent at the Woodland Conference Relays last weekend, where the team won the meet with 344 points over a solid D2 Shorewood squad. Impressively, the New Berlin swimmers won eight of the relay events at the meet, setting meet records in six of them -- pretty impressive, as the Woodland has a strong boys swimming tradition.

With some of the Milwaukee area's traditional D1 powers hit with graduation losses this year, New Berlin could emerge from the always tough Waukesha South sectional with a strong contingent of swimmers for the state meet.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Whitefish Bay moves up in the North Shore

The always competitive North Shore Conference has often been a battle among D1 powers Mequon Homestead and Glendale Nicolet, and D2 powers Whitefish Bay and Cedarburg. It looks like Whitefish Bay has moved to the head of the class.

The Blue Dukes won the North Shore Relays last week with 92 points, five more than Homestead and 10 more than third-place Nicolet. Cedarburg finished fourth with 68 points.

Of course, some may partly attribute Whitefish Bay's success to the heavy loss dealt via graduation to some of the conference rivals. Perhaps no league in the Milwaukee area lost as many top-flight swimmers as the North Shore, with the likes of Nicolet's Steve Cebertowicz, Homestad's Jonathan Whitcomb, and Cedarburg's Tommy Radtke and Mike Schalla having graduated.

Whitefish Bay lost some key seniors as well -- Peter Brengel chief among them -- but the Blue Dukes returned a slew of swimmers, many of them with state-meet experience, and are emerging early this season as one of D2's top teams. One of the key's to Whitefish Bay's success is their versatility; they have a bunch of swimmers who can swim several different events, and swim them well, which gives coach Jim Davis a lot of room to maneuver in setting up lineups. To wit, the Blue Dukes won both the 400 medley relay (four swimmers x 100 in each stroke) and the 400 IM relay (four swimmers x 100 IM) at the North Shore meet. They also won the breaststroke and backstroke relays at the meet, plus the closing 400 free relay. Leading the way for the team were juniors Jason Castillo, Chris Fink, and Chuck Prestigiacomo, and sophomore D.J. Freisch, all of who swam on three winning relays.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

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.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Early big dual meet goes to Whitefish Bay

Two of the state's top D2 teams squared off Tuesday night in a North Shore Conference dual meet, with Whitefish Bay just edging out Cedarburg 82-74. The two squads figure to contend at the D2 state meet, with Cedarburg the defending state runners-up, while WB aims to improve on last year's fourth-place finish.

WB got wins in all three relays and individual event wins from Chris Fink (200 free -- 1:56.42), Chucky Prestigiacomo (100 free -- 52.07), and DJ Freisch (100 breaststroke -- 1:05.93). Cedarburg's Carl Newenhouse was a double winner in the 200 IM (2:05.74) and 100 back (55.16).

Switching seasons

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports on the possible switch of the boys and girls swim seasons, with mostly negative reactions from some of the Milwaukee area's high-profile boys programs such as Hartland Arrowhead.

See: http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/35842309.html

It's worth noting, again, the rather imprecise language of WIAA officials when discussing this issue. Note the following from the article (re. the Michigan court case cited by WIAA officials for considering making the switch):

"The court ruling with the (MHSAA) led to not only Wisconsin, but it has required all state associations to look carefully at what's called 'preferred seasons' for seasonal placement," said Tom Shafranski, assistant director of the WIAA. "Courts determined that, for swimming and diving, the preferred girls season is the winter period."

Questions and observations:

-- Did the Michigan court case really "require" Wisconsin and other states to "look carefully" at the issue of preferred seasons? Courts in one state rarely require other states to do anything, as a legal matter. Or did WIAA officials simply infer from the Michigan decision that they might be pressed in a similar manner, via a lawsuit, to switch some seasons around, and thus decided to talk about the switch in order to fend off any potential lawsuits?

-- The Michigan court case said exactly the opposite of what the WIAA says in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article:

"The Court finds that the fall season for swimming has advantages that outweigh advantages to
swimming in winter." (See section III, part E, starting on page 46, here:

http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/sports/coemhsaa121401opn.pdf

The Michigan High School Athletic Association switched several seasons as a result of the litigation there, but not swimming. In Michigan (outside of the low-population Upper Peninsula) girls swimming is a fall sport, while boys swimming remains a winter sport. (Interestingly, MHSAA officials, in assembling which sports to switch seasons in response to the lawsuit, received the most vocal opposition from its member high schools to the idea of switching girls swimming to winter and boys swimming to fall.)

There are already rumblings among some boys swim coaches that they expect the switch to be made. But it's still unclear where the WIAA derives its (apparent) belief that girls and boys swim seasons in Wisconsin should be switched.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Little big man -- Wausau East's Josh Hall

Watch enough swim meets, and the ways in which swimmers attack a particular stroke all tend to blend together. There are variations on strokes, of course, but few swimmers stand out as doing something truly different.

Then along comes someone like Josh Hall of Wausau East to change your mind. Hall, a senior, is one of the state's best swimmers; he is easily the shortest, best swimmer in the state (he might stand 5'6"). Hall's speciality is the breaststroke, and to watch him swim it is a treat. Hall makes up for his diminutive stature by having what must be the most rapid turnover (swim term -- the time it takes to complete one full version of the stroke) of any breaststroker, male or female, in the state.

Last year, Hall entered the state D1 meet with the fastest seed time in the 100 breastroke, only to be edged by Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial's Collin Neitzel in the finals, 58.19 to 58.61. Neitzel, a junior, towers over Hall -- they are truly the Mutt and Jeff of Wisconsin breaststroking -- and attacks the breaststroke with a huge reach and tremendous pull, befitting his long arms and lanky frame.

But Hall may have revenge on his mind. Just before the start of the boys swim season, Hall swam a 55.50 100 breaststroke at the regional Grand Prix meet held at the very fast University of Minnesota Natatorium. To give some perspective to that time, the state record for the 100 breaststroke is 55.87 (Madison Memorial's Chris Wood). It's the most venerable record in D1, as Wood set it in 1995, making it by two years the oldest D1 record on the books.

It should be fun to watch Hall pursue the record, and Neitzel, this year.

Verona a force in the Big Eight?

Longtime swim power Verona is now a member of the Big Eight, one of the most competitive swim conferences in the state. The Wildcats showed they will be a strong addition to the conference as they came close to edging Madison Memorial in a dual meet Friday night at Verona, losing by just six, 88-82. The Wildcats won seven of the 11 races at the meet, including the medley and 400 free relays, traditionally a strong suit of Memorial. Looking particularly strong for Verona was junior Derek Toomey, who captured both the 50 (25.13 -- meters) and 100 (55.88) frees. Sophomore Spencer Ritt won his speciality, the 100 fly (1:02.70), and swam on both the team's winning relays.

Verona graduated several seniors, including Ian Girdley, arguably the team's best swimmer. But they return a strong group of swimmers, including state qualifiers Ritt and Jeff Peterson (breaststroke). They also have several swimmers -- Toomey, Jacob Olandt, and Kevin Misener -- who have experience swimming at the state meet in relays and just missed out on qualifying individually for the state meet. Look for them to be a force in the Big Eight this year.

In other notable Big Eight results, Middleton topped Madison West 97-73 behind senior Sam Niesen, who had wins in the 200 IM (2:00.87) and the 100 free (48.53). Over on the other side of town, Madison East topped Janesville Parker 116-54 behind junior Robert Miner, who had wins in the 200 IM (2:10.45) and the 100 fly (54.09), his specialty. Watch out for Miner this year in the fly; he has already gone below 54 in the fly this season, and during the fall club season, handily beat several of the state's top flyers, including Greenfield/Greendale's Jack Lennertz and New Berlin West/Eisenhower's Byron Butler.

Memorial wins early test

Madison Memorial showed it will likely be a top contender come D1 state meet time after one of the first early tests of the swim season. The Spartans on Wednesday topped a quality field at the Brookfield Invitational, easily winning with 425 points to runner-up Middleton's 346.5. Marquette, third in last year's state meet, finished third at the Brookfield meet with 344.5 points, ahead of fourth-place Hartland Arrowhead (313), last year's defending D1 state champs.

The meet results should probably come with an asterisk, however, as neither of Arrowhead's two best swimmers -- sprinter Mitchell Friedemann and distance swimmer Ryan Hansen -- swam individual events at the meet. The Spartans were led by junior Michael Drives, who won the 200 IM (1:58.82) and the 500 free (4:46.08) with solid early-season times. Drives also swam the breaststroke leg on the winning medley relay (1:42.14), and diver Nate Broadbridge won a close match-up with Marquette's Mike Donofrio -- the two are among the top returning divers in the state this year.

The meet also marked the debut of two highly anticipated freshmen -- Lucas Kuriga for Marquette and Jake Prodoehl for HA. Both have been tearing through state age-group meets for the past two years. Prodoehl won the 100 free at the Brookfield meet (49.30) and finished third in the 50 free (22.77) -- both qualifying times for the D1 state meet last year. Kuriga finished third in the 100 fly (55.67) and swam on Marqeutte's winning 200 and 400 free relays.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Spartans show strength

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.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Swimmers of the year -- girls

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has named Brookfield Academy's Kelsey Hojan-Clark as its swimmer of year. It's a big honor for the D2 swimmer, given the competition she faces from the wealth of D1 powers in the Milwaukee area. Hojan-Clark was the only Milwaukee-area swimmer to win two individual state titles this year, and came with about a half-second of setting two state records in the 200 and 500 frees.

See article here:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/35348844.html

This past weekend, the Wisconsin State Journal named Madison East's Ruby Martin and Aja Van Hout as its co-swimmers of the year. It's the second year in a row the paper has honored Van Hout, a sophomore with seven state titles to her name already. Martin finished her career at East with eight state titles (four individual, four relays) and will be headed to the University of Wisconsin to continue her swimming career.

Monday, December 1, 2008

D1 boys preview

It would be hard to top the conclusion of last year's Division 1 boys swim season, when the outcome of the state meet came down to the last 15 yards of the last event of the meet, and involved four teams.

(To recap, Madison Memorial needed to win the 400 free relay, or finish two places ahead of Hartland Arrowhead, to win its fourth straight title. Memorial had the lead going into the last leg of the relay, only to see Badger-Big Foot's Wes Lagerhausen swim a mind-boggling 44.06 anchor leg to catch the Spartans. Still, it looked like Memorial had won the title with its second-place finish, as Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights edge Arrowhead for third place in the relay. But the Sauk swimmers were DQ'd for an early entry on a start, moving Arrowhead up to third place in the relay. The additional two points for HA gave them the state title over Memorial, 217-216.)

Can HA repeat? To do so, they'll have to ride the broad shoulders of sprinter Mitchell Friedemann and distance swimmer Ryan Hansen, two of the best swimmers in the state. Friedemann, a junior, will be looking for a third straight title in the 100 back, and with top sprinters Lagerhausen and Nicolet's Steve Cebertowicz graduated, improve on his 3rd-place finish in the 100 free. Hansen, meanwhile, came within two-tenths of a second (in the 200 free, where he finished second) of capturing both the 200 and 500 free races at the state meet, and enters this season as the top threat in each event. But HA will have to fill some spots to repeat; eight of the 12 slots on relays that placed at state last year were swum by now-departed seniors. Look for juniors Cody Roller (16th at state in the IM, 13th in fly) and Chris Jenkyns (7th 500 free, 17th back), along with sophomore Brent Schreibel (12th 500 free), to play bigger roles for HA this year.

As for Memorial, they'll look to junior Michael Drives, who along with Friedemann and Hansen is the top returning swimmer in the state. He's the defending champ in the 200 IM, and finished 3rd in the 500 free. The Spartans, however, were a senior-dominated team last year; look for seniors Jake Schneider and Shawn Marcott to step up this year for Memorial. The Spartans will also count on diver Nate Broadbridge, who finished 11th last year at state but could move up to the podium this year after the graduation of a number of the state's top divers.

It's been more than 30 years (1976 -- Beloit) since a team outside either the Milwaukee or Madison areas won the state D1 title. Is Wausau East the team to break the string this year? The Lumberjacks return some top-quality swimmers, led by seniors Lucas Koenig (2nd fly, 3rd 50 free) and Josh Hall (2nd breaststroke, 11th IM). Junior Danny Brebrick (12th 100 free, 13th 100 breast, anchor free leg on 1st-place medley relay) provided additional points for Wausau East at the state meet; the Lumberjacks will likely have to add some depth to contend for the title.

Marquette finished 3rd last year at state behind strong showings from all of its relays (4th place finishes by both the medley and 400 free, and a 3rd place in the 200 free). Seniors Wes Borden (12th 200 free, 10th 100 fly), Andrew Breger (8th 50 free), and Seph Scheid (13th 50 free, 14th fly), along with junior Joe Bastien, lead a strong contingent of returning swimmers. Junior Mike Donofrio finished 4th last year in the dive meet behind three departed seniors, and will look to contend for a state title this year.

Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights, one of the smaller D1 programs in the state, showed it could swim with the big sharks last year with a 6th-place finish at state. The co-op returns a strong nucleus of swimmers, including Tyler Lentz (2nd IM, 5th breaststroke), Matt Friede (8th 200 free, 6th 100 free), and Tyler Evans (5th 50 free, 7th 100 fly) -- the trio made up three-fourths of the swimmers who won the 200 free relay last year and would've finished 3rd in the 400 free relay absent the DQ.

A darkhouse candidate to move up the standings could be Middleton, which finished 11th last year at state. The Cardinals are led by senior Sam Niesen (3rd 200 free, 2nd back), and return everyone who swam at state last year, including all members of its three relay teams. Middleton is also expected to add some high-quality freshmen to the fold, and will certainly contend with Memorial for top honors in the always competitive Big Eight Conference.

Other D1 swimmers to watch this season include: the Greendale/Greenfield co-op duo of Jack Lennertz (12th IM, 4th fly) and Mike Lucchesi (4th 200 free, 7th 100 free); Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial's Collin Nietzel (1st place 100 breaststroke, 4th IM); New Berlin West/Eisenhower's Byron Butler (1st place butterfly, 7th backstroke), and Waukesha West/Mukwonago's Dillon Wiesner (3rd breaststroke, 10th IM).

D2 boys preview

The boys high school swim season is upon us, with a few teams already having swum a meet. The season begins in earnest this week, with a number of conference relays.

In Division 2, the big question entering the season is: Can anyone stop McFarland on its march to a third straight state title? The Spartans certainly are loaded; they return six of the seven swimmers who scored McFarland's 251 points at the state meet last year. The lone graduating senior -- Ian Bakk, who won both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke at state, plus swam a key leg on the winning 200 medley relay -- is a big loss for the team. But the Spartans return: Brandon O'Donnell, runner-up in both the IM and 100 fly, and the anchor of the winning 400 free relay; distance swimmers Graham Thoresen and Brian Heiser, 3rd and 4th, respectively, in both the 200 and 500 frees; sprinter Peter Grenzow; plus state relay swimmers Ben Psyk and Andrew Hovel. In addition, the Spartans are expected to add a talented group of freshmen, led by Ryan O'Donnell (brother of Brandon and current UW swimmer Derek), who has already swum state-qualifying times in a number of events for his Spartan Sharks club team. McFarland is a team that combines swimmers capable of placing in the top five at state in several events, plus three strong relays. It's a tough combination to beat at the D2 level.

Who might make McFarland sweat a bit this season?

-- Whitefish Bay, fourth last year at state, returns five swimmers who qualified for the state meet last year, led by Jason Castillo (4th in both the IM and breastroke). Three-fourths of the medley and 400 free relays return (both with top-eight finishes last year at the state meet), and the team may have enough depth to qualify all three relays for state. Whitefish Bay has a very strong junior class; they may be a year away from knocking off McFarland from its perch. They also have one of the top returning divers in Ian Gee.

-- Last year's runner-up, Cedarburg, has two big holes to fill with the graduation of distance swimmer Tommy Radtke and sprinter Mike Schalla, who between them scored 73 points in individual events last year at state. But four state qualifiers return, led by sophomore Carl Newenhouse (11th IM, 9th back) and distance swimmer Jim Akkala (14th 200 free, 8th 500 free). Cedarburg also returns all three of its divers that placed at state last year, including defending champ Will Mathee.

-- Shorewood qualifed all three of its relays on its way to a 7th-place finish at state, and nearly all of its top swimmers return. Shorewood is particularly strong in the distance events, with R.J. Hayes (9th in the 200 free, 6th in the 500 free) and Karl Weisling (10th in the 200 free, 7th in the 500 free). Stephen Meyer is the team's top returning swimmer, with top-five finishes last year at state in both the fly and back.

-- Delavan-Darien finished 6th last year at state, led by its terrific tandem of Alex Riegert (3rd in the 50 free, 2nd in the breaststroke) and Nathaniel Johnson (3rd in both the IM and breastroke).

-- Similar to Cedarburg, Ashwaubenon will be looking to fill holes left by graduation. Senior Chris Vandervest (6th in the 100 free, 5th in the breastroke) leads a contingent of five state qualifiers returning. Ashwaubenon finished 3rd last year at state on the strength of its relays, including the winning 200 free relay. Filling out those relays may be a key to the team's success this year.

-- Looking for a darkhorse? Try Madison Edgewood. The Crusaders brought in a strong freshman class last year, led by Drew teDuits (2nd in back, 5th in fly at state). Distance swimmer Chase Stephens (8th 200 free, 5th 500 free) also swims quality legs on relays, and the team's young swimmers may be poised to better last year's 11th place finish at state; every swimmer who scored points at the state meet returns.

As for individual swimmers to look out for this year, watch for strong seasons from: Milton's Jeff Maxwell, the defending champ in the 500 free and 2nd-place finisher in the 200 free; Rhinelander's Ben Lonsdorf, runner-up last year in both the 50 and 100 free sprints; Brookfield Academy's dynamic sophomore duo of Jonathan Marks (5th IM, 11th breastroke) and Jack Donovan (6th fly, 11th 200 free); River Falls senior Eric Emerson (3rd 100 free, 7th back); and Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door's John Parent (5th 200 free, 7th 100 free). On a side note, if the WIAA is looking for reasons not to switch the boys swim season to the fall, they could do worse than consider the case of Parent, a second-team all-conference quarterback for his Sturgeon Bay football team.