Small School State @ Shorewood

To no one's surprise, McFarland ran away with the Small School Invite title at Shorewood last Saturday, stamping itself (as if it hadn't already) as the team to beat at D2 state this year.

It was a dominant win by the Spartans, with their 367 points topping runner-up Whitefish Bay by 96 points. McFarland won half of the eight individual events, and all three relays, prompting Whitefish Bay junior Chuck Prestigiacomo to suggest the Spartans might be the best D2 team in history. How good are the Spartans? At a meet with 19 teams, the lowest finish among the Spartans' 18 individual swimmer entries was 11th place.

For Whitefish Bay, the meet served as their notice to the rest of the state that they are the team to beat for the runner-up trophy at D2 state. The team secured its runner-up finish by 52 points over the third-place hosts, with Sturgeon Bay and Milton rounding out the top five (Ashwaubenon, Madison Edgewood and Waunakee were the top-10 D2 teams absent from the meet). Other highlights:

-- McFarland continues to dominate teams in the distance events, going 1-2 in the 200 free and 1-7 in the 500 free, with senior Graham Thoresen winning both events. Thoresen pulled away from teammate Brian Heiser in the 200 free in the last 50 yards to win with a 1:45.98, the year's fastest time in D2. Heiser finished ahead of Milton's Jeff Maxwell (1:46.88 to 1:48.65) in a race that featured three of the best D2 distance swimmers in the state. Thoresen hooked up with Maxwell again in the 500 free, and after the pair swam away from the rest of the field in the opening 100 yards, Thoresen pulled away in the last 200 yards to win with a 4:47.04 to Maxwell's 4:50.09. The two rivals will surely hook up again at state in what should be a very good race, one in which Maxwell is the defending state champ.

-- The best race of the meet came in the 200 IM, with McFarland's O'Donnell brothers -- Brandon and Ryan -- hooking up against Delavan-Dariens' Nate Johnson. The O'Donnell brothers got off to an early lead, Brandon leading his little brother, but were chased down by Johnson, a great breaststroker, on the third leg of the race. In the end, Brandon O'Donnell just out-touched Johnson for the win by a hundreth of a second (1:59.01 to 1:59.02, the two fastest times of the season). Look for the two to see each other again at state, where O'Donnell finished second last year to Johnson's third, possibly joined by freshman Ryan O'Donnell.

-- Two other swimmers had breakout meets -- Whitefish Bay's Prestigiacomo and Brookfield Academy's Jack Donovan. Prestigiacomo, a junior, won the 100 free over Heiser and finished second in the 50 free to Delavan-Darien's Alex Riegert. He also helped his team's medley relay finish second and 400-free relay finish third. Donovan, meanwhile, has been having a very good season after his terrific debut last year as a freshman, when he qualified for state in both the 200 free and 100 fly. He stamped himself as a state title contender in the 100 fly with an upset over Brandon O'Donnell in the 100 fly, winning with a time of 53.54 to 53.85.

-- Perhaps the biggest upset of the meet came in diving, where Plymouth's Mitchell Spaeth won over defending D2 state champ Mill Mathee of Cedarburg, 424.95-406.55. Spaeth was last year's runner-up; these two dive against each other frequently, and will see each other again at the Plymouth sectional and certainly at state.