McFarland showed it was one of the best Div. 2 boys teams in years, exceed by only the 2005 Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door squad. Only that SB/SD team exceeded McFarlands' point total of 332 since the WIAA split swimming into two divisions in 1993.
Meanwhile, Madison Memorial's winning total of 200.5 was the lowest in state history since the first year of 16-place scoring in 1982.
So how would the two Spartan squads fare against each other in a mythical match-up? Well, the WIAA does allow teams to move up a division, at their own discretion, if they want to compete against higher-caliber opponents at state-level competition. No one's taken up the WIAA on the rule since it was put in place a few years ago.
But what if McFarland had chosen to do so this year? They would've won the D1 title as well. Slotting McFarland's state qualifiers and relays into the Div. 1 meet would have resulted in a final tally of 195 for McFarland to 192.5 for Memorial.
Memorial won the state title on the strength of its relays, all of which had top-four finishes at the D1 meet, along with a win and a second-place from star swimmer Michael Drives in the 200/500 frees. But McFarland would've nearly matched Memorial's performance in the relays -- scoring 84 points in the D1 meet to Memorial's 90 -- and McFarland's distance swimmers would have out-pointed Memorial's in the 200 and 500 frees by a 48-42 margin. Led by brothers Brandon and Ryan O'Donnell, McFarland also would've out-pointed Memorial in the 200 IM, the 100 fly, and the 100 back.
Don't look for McFarland to move up to Div. 1 anytime soon. The three-time state champs are well below the enrollment level needed to involuntarily move up to Div. 1, and it's doubtful the school will make the move on its own. One can probably guess the "four-peat" signs are already being printed in McFarland.
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4 comments:
Phil is a pretty smart fellow! What is the secret behind McFarland doing so well?
My own observations:
-- A lot of the McFarland swimmers come out of, and train the rest of the year with, the McFarland Spartan Sharks program, a very solid club program. They get consistent training year-round, and that helps.
-- They always seem to swim extremely well at state, a credit to the training and tapering strategy of coach Nick Weiss. He also seems to keep things fresh during the season by mixing it up for the swimmers -- they tend to swim a lot of different events during the year, which I imagine keeps things new and interesting for the swimmers. Swimming is a grind; doing things a bit differently, even though it may lead to swimmers in odd events, can be beneficial in the long run.
-- Success builds upon success. I've never been to a McFarland practice, but my guess is that they can be quite competitive, with that many top-flight swimmers going at it all at once. The truly great coaches -- UCLA's John Wooden, Penn State's Joe Paterno -- always talk about how their players often viewed the contest as easier than the practice.
-- It's a swimming community, where swimmers are honored and looked up upon in ways they probably aren't in other communities, where swimmers are sometimes viewed as the odd folks who get up at 5:30 am to practice and (for boys) shave their heads once a year. Why does Mineral Point always have great wrestlers, or Randolph great basketball players? Communities often nurture certain sports, and in McFarland it's swimming.
Hey Phil,
But surely McFarland can't keep this up? Could they? I mean, they couldn't win too many more? Right?
Just wondering.
--Joey
Well, they brought in a terrific freshmen class -- including probably the best D2 freshman in the state in Ryan O'Donnell (two legs on 1st-place relays, and a 2nd and 3rd in his individual events). They qualified four other freshmen for state in individual events -- I don't know of another D2 school that came close to qualifying five freshmen for state this year. That's an awfully good foundation for a few years. And though they are losing two big guns in Brandon O'Donnell and Thoresen, they return guys like Heiser and Grenzow. In addition, it's safe to assume the Spartan Sharks program has some up-and-comers in the pipeline.
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