Madison West Invitational @ UW Natatorium

The state's biggest meet of the season took place last Saturday, with Madison West hosting an invitational with 20 mainly D1 teams competing. This has always been a fast meet, as it's held at the UW-Madison Natatorium and features several top D1 teams.

Although chief rival Hartland-Arrowhead didn't compete, Madison Memorial continued to make its case for being the favorite for the D1 state title later this month with an easy win. The Spartans beat next-door neighbor Madison West 309.5-204. It was a real log-jam after that, with Middleton, Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial, Marquette, Verona, Sauk Prairie, Neenah and Wausau West all bunched together in 4th-through-9th place separated by 26.5 points.

West coach Jean Shearer was elated with her team's runner-up finish, telling the Wisconsin State Journal that the key to the team's success was getting in shape. Huh? Turns out West is full of swimmers who play soccer, run cross country, and pursue other sporting activities in the fall, and thus it takes them a while to get into swimming shape compared to teams stocked with club swimmers.

A few other meet highlights:

-- Is there a better male swimmer in the state than Memorial's Michael Drives? You'd be hard-pressed to name one. Drives won two events -- the 200 IM and the 500 free -- both with season-best times this year in D1 (1:55.37 in the IM; 4:34.22 in the 500). His win in the 500 free was something to see -- a truly remarkable race that he won by nearly 18 seconds and drew the loudest applause of the meet from the appreciative crowd. He also anchored two Memorial relays to wins. Drives isn't just a terrific swimmer; he's humble and gracious in victory, making sure to shake hands with his competitors and genuinely congratulating them for their efforts. And here's another thing -- he doesn't duck tough opponents. Knowing Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights' Tyler Lentz would be at the meet and likely swimming in the 200 IM, Drives swam that event instead of the 200 free and the pair hooked up in a terrific race that Drives pulled out by 1.2 seconds (1:55.37 to 1:56.57 for Lentz). The night before, at Memorial's Big Eight duel meet at Madison East, Drives swam the 100 fly against East's Robert Miner, who had been posting some of the state's fastest fly times of the year. Rumor had it that Miner's times had been posted in the Memorial pool prior to the meet. Drives won that race, too, with a 52.49 to Miner's 53.25 that came down to the last 20 yards. Great swimmers take on big challenges -- one reason Drives is the leading force behind Memorial's drive to a 10th state title.

-- Memorial never seems to rebuild; it just re-loads. One good example came from the team's 200 medley relay, which was just edged out by defending state champs Wausau East in the medley, 1:40.09 to 1:40.10. Memorial finished third last year at state in the medley, but only breaststroker Shaun Marcott returned to swim the medley at the Invitational. Instead, Memorial used Illinois transfer Kyle Challis (backstroke), freshman Ben Anderson (fly) and senior diver Nate Broadbridge (anchoring free -- who knew?) to put together a strong relay. Broadbridge will certainly be an asset in Memorial's bid for a state title -- he won the diving competition last weekend, and is a strong contender for the state diving title this year.

-- Middleton's Sam Niesen was a double winner at the meet, easily taking the 200 free (1:42.91) by more than two seconds and the 100 back (52.19) in a terrific duel with Edgewood's Drew teDuits (52.53). Look for Niesen to swim the back at sectionals; he's the likely state favorite with two-time defending state champ Mitchell Friedmann of H-A opting for club swimming this year.

-- The best individual race of the night came in the 100 fly, where six swimmers went under 54 seconds and the final three places finished with .12 seconds of each other. It was Wausau East's Lucas Koening winning with a 53.39, followed closely by Sauk's Tyler Evans (53.42) and Madison East's Miner (53.52).

-- The meet also featured a highly anticipated match-up between the top two finishers at the state meet last year in 100 breaststroke -- defending champ Collin Neitzel of Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial and Wausau East's Josh Hall. The diminutive Hall came into last year's state meet as the top seed and favorite, only to lose to the lanky Neitzel. Hall got his revenge last weekend, though, winning easily with a time of 58.21 to Neitzel's 1:00.89. This should be one of the better races to watch at this year's D1 state meet.

-- It was fitting that the last race of the night would come down to the last legs between the meet's best two swimmers -- Memorial's Drives and Middleton's Niesen (who began swimming against each other in outdoor summer club programs when they were not much older than toddlers; Niesen beat out Drives for the 8 & under 100 IM title at the 2000 Madison All-City swim meet). The two entered the water literally tied, with Memorial holding a a slim one-tenth of a second lead over Middleton (with Wausau East also in the mix). Drives and Niesen quickly got past East anchor Danny Brebrick, and duked it out over the last 50 yards neck and neck. Drives edged Neisen by .11 seconds in the end, with both swimming quick anchor legs of 46.24 (Drives) and 46.25 (Niesen). It should be fun to see those teams, and that relay in particular, match up against each other in the coming weeks -- Memorial and Middleton will meet up twice more at conference and sectional meets before the season-ending D1 state meet.