Best race ever? The D1 500 free broken down

Rarely in sports these days does the real thing live up to the hype. Not so with the Div. 1 500 free, which more than lived up to its billing in a race that featured perhaps the two best swimmers in the state -- Madison Memorial's Michael Drives and Hartland-Arrowhead's Ryan Hansen.

Much of the hype centered on the two swimmers' performance leading up to the race. Drives, third last year at the state meet in the 500, had swum a 4:34.22 at the UW Natatorium three weeks earlier at the Madison West Invite. Hansen, who won the 500 free last year at state (4:35.26), came into this year's state meet seeded first in the event after a sensational 4:31.20 at the Waukesha South sectional that was more than a second under the exisiting state record.

The two swimmers also offer a stark contrast in style and approach. Drives has a very long reach with a stroke that is measured and almost elegant; he's one of those swimmers that you might think, "He doesn't look that fast." His underwater pull is tremendous, and he gets a terrific push off the wall on his turns and stays underwater for a long time. Hansen, meanwhile, is all flurry and activity, with a rapid arm turnover. When he goes into a wall for his turn, he looks like he can't get up on top of the water fast enough to begin his stroke again.

The two also attack their races much differently -- Drives deliberate and stalking, often succeeding through long, sustained periods of fast swimming. Hansen, on the other hand, just goes out and attacks a race, always preferring to swim from the lead, and tries to maintain his fast pace. It worked brilliantly last year in the 500 free, when Hansen went out in a 1:46.00 in the opening 200, got clear of both Drives and Memorial teammate Chris Johnson, and was never headed, winning by more than 2.5 seconds.

The 200 free offered a preview of the 500 free, with Hansen seeded 1st by a second over Drives. Hansen as usual got off to a fast start, opening with a 22.16 for his first 50, compared to Drives' 22.69 (Hansen's opening 50 in the 200 was faster than eight of the 24 D1 swimmers who swam the 50 free at state). But then Drives put it into overdrive, and just absolutely took the race -- and his opponent -- apart. He split the next 50 nearly a second faster than Hansen, and the third 50 more than a second-and-a-half faster. You could hear a collective gasp go up from the crowd when Drives easily pulled away, opening up a larger-than-two-body-length lead as he drove toward the finish. He touched out in 1:38.02, smashing the previous state record (1:39.21 by the UW's Wes Lagerhausen two years ago) and beating Hansen by nearly three seconds. Hansen's 1:40.71 was almost two seconds faster than he swam the year before, when he was just out-touched by Johnson of Memorial for first place. But after this year's 200 free, he was clearly the beaten swimmer. And it wasn't just the margin of victory; Hansen appeared to offer little resistance when Drives took the race into another gear.

All that was merely prelude to the 500 free, and it seemed few folks outside the orbit of Hartland-Arrowhead thought Hansen could come back after the 200 free defeat. Nonetheless, he attacked the race similarly, opening with a 22.78 first 50, and a 49.08 opening 100. Drives, swimming in lane 5 with Hansen in lane 4, opened his first 100 in 50.69 -- about a second-and-a-half behind Hansen, but clearly within range with 400 yards to go. Even by now, after first 100 yards, it was apparent it was going to be a two-person race for first place.

Drives then started to reel in Hansen -- by the 200-yard mark, he'd cut .61 seconds off Hansen's lead. He cut another half-second off the lead by the halfway mark of the race. By then, the crowd anticipated a repeat of the 200 free race -- Hansen off to an early lead, then overtaken by Drives. At 300 yards , the two were virtually tied; 50 yards later, as the race entered its closing stages, Drives had moved ahead. Surely Drives would pull away to the win.

Then something happened. He didn't. Hansen stayed right on Drive's shoulder, furiously maintaining his stroke to keep up for the next 100 yards. Just before they reached the turn for the final 50 yards, Hansen nudged ahead -- by a scant three-tenths of a second. As the two competitors came off the turn for the final 50 yards, the crowd rose as one, screaming at the top of its collective lungs. Stroke for stroke, the two swimmers went after each other, driving for the final push off the wall. When the two came out of their final turns, Hansen still had the lead, and then closed out the race, sprinting ahead to finish exactly one second ahead of Drives. Their times -- Hansen at 4:28.98, Drives at 4:29.98 -- were the two fastest 500s swum in state history, and well under the previous record of 4:32.67 set by Middleton's Jimmy Graves in 2005.

It didn't take long for the two swimmers to embrace and congratulate each other on the race. Surely each had pushed other faster and harder than they would have accomplished alone. The crowd stayed standing and offered the longest ovation of the day. It doesn't get much better than that.