After a couple of weeks of girls swimming, here are a few notable times and results:
-- Madison Memorial's depth of talent is impressive. The Spartans wandered north for the UW-Eau Claire relays and emerged with a first-place win with 386 points, 82 points in front of neighborhood rival Madison West. In an all-relay meet, Memorial took six of the 12 relays, with four 2nd-place finishes. Memorial has also topped tough Big Eight rivals West (109-61) and Verona (112-58, a very good win considering two-time state champ Jackie Powell took the night off). Memorial has a young but versatile squad this year, with key contributions from several sophomores; how its young group of swimmers develop over the course of the season will be a big factor in how the Spartans match up against the D1 field in November.
-- In a very tight contest, Madison Edgewood beat out Oregon and Milton to win the Badger Conference South relays meet. Edgewood scored 132 points to 126 for Oregon and 124 for Milton, with McFarland in 4th place with 104 points. The meet was decided in the last event -- the 400 free relay -- with Edgewood and Oregon battling it out in an extremely close race. It came down to the anchor legs for each team, and appropriately featured two senior sprinters -- Edgewood's Kelsey Richards and Oregon's Rachel Walsh -- who have been two of the conference's better sprinters for the past four years. Richards held off her rival from Oregon as Edgewood won with a time of 3:45.56, just .15 seconds ahead of Oregon. DeForest won the Badger Conference North relays meet with 106 points, with Waunakee (90), Baraboo (84) and Sauk Prairie (82) trailing.
-- Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door has been impressive in some early meets, posting times that are competitive with those swum by the team late in the season last year. Notably, the Clippers star freshman Savanna Townsend set a team record in the 50 free with a time of 24.68 at the Shawaon Sprints meet, a time that would've placed 4th last year at the D2 state meet. Her 54.32 100 free time at the same meet would've placed 9th at state. The team's medley relay of Townsend, older sister Sierra Townsend, Michaela Rabas and McKenzie Trelka also set a team record time of 1:51.48 that topped the team's 11th-place finish at state last year by nearly a second. The Townsends and Trelka also teamed with Erin Hogan to swim a 1:40.89 200 free relay, which would've placed 7th last year at state. ""It was pretty scary," Clippers coach Mike McHugh told the Door County Advocate. "I think the times are remarkable for this early in the season." The Clippers don't regularly face the caliber of teams that Madison and Milwaukee-area D2 teams do, but they continue to make a case for a strong showing this November at the state meet.
-- Madison East junior Aja Van Hout, the state's best swimmer, often finds herself swimming against her own time standards, given that few swimmers in the state can keep up with her. But she's just as good when faced with a hill to climb. Against Middleton recently, Van Hout anchored East's 200 and 400 free relays to victories, overcoming large deficits in doing so. In the 200 free relay, she swam a 22.92 anchor leg after entering the water nearly three seconds behind. In the 400 free relay, she swam a 50.79 anchor leg after entering the water nearly four seconds behind. In each case, she ran down veteran state meet swimmers for Middleton. Oh, and her winning individual times: 1:52.34 in the 200 free and 4:56.22 in the 500 free -- a time only a small handful of swimmers in the history of the state have topped.
-- Keep an eye on Brookfield East sophomore Sara Brzozowski. Against Menomonee Falls/Sussex Hamilton this past week, she won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.91 and the 500 freestyle in 5:06.00 -- both impressive times for this early in the season. Brzozowski qualified for state last year in the 500, finishing 19th with a time of 5:17.16. It's not unusual to see young swimmers make big strides in distance events from year to year. And the 500 free may be the single most loaded event this year in D1 -- 15 of the top 16 placers from last year's meet return, including the top 8. With four returning swimmers having already broken 5 minutes in their careers (Van Hout, Middleton's Katie Delaney, and Muskego's Brittany Walsh and Jessica Wolf), the 500 free has the potential to be one of the best events to watch at the state meet this year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Badger South shapes up to be a real horse race this year. Oregon won both the dual meet race and the conference championship meet fairly easily last year. Milton was second in the dual meet race, but finished third behind Edgewood at the conference meet.
This year, Oregon must replace three seniors who went to D1 state, and five seniors overall.
Milton lost several seniors who were important contributors, but has picked up the Holmquist sisters, two freshman who turned in impressive times at the relay meet. Milton's biggest question may be depth.
Edgewood lost 14 time state qualifier and former state champ Beth Schramka, but has most of the other top swimmers from last year back, and has started strong.
Any one of these three teams could come out on top at the end of the year.
Phil...great job. Many us with high school swimmers really enjoy your blog. I agree that coverage in SE Wisconsin via the Milwaukee news outlets is less than helpful in providing you results to review. For those who following Wisconsin club swimming, many will enjoy watching some outstanding freshman make a huge impact come November. Leah Pronchinske (Eau Claire Memorial) is an Olympic Trial qualifier and will clearly be the favorite in the 100 Breast. Kenzie Buss (Shawno) will be a major force in the 100 Back. Also rumor has it Sierra Kuhn (Verona) will swim high school this year and will be a major player in anything she swims.
You continue to mention Madison Memorial's depth, but watch Arrowhead. The team is truly impressive with the ability to field 2-3 swimmers per event who can score points at state. They have 10 girls on the team who can go 1:00 or faster in the 100 Back. Their early results, especially on relays, are 2-3 seconds faster than anyone so far this year.
Thnaks for the info. on Leah -- I had heard some speculation over the past year that she might bypass high school swimming to focus on club training and competitions. Good for her for choosing to swim for EC Memorial -- she's certainly one of the most anticipated freshmen in recent years in D1 (and there have been quite a few lately!). I'd think the anticipated duel between her and B-BF-WB's Emily Russart, two-time defending state champ in the 100 breaststroke, at state will be a real barn-burner.
I don't think Sierra is swimming for Verona -- or at least she hasn't appeared in their first few meets.
I see Kenzie is also showing up in results for the Shawano-Bonduel co-op. D1 100 backstroke is also loaded this year, with most of the top swimmers returning, including defending champ Jackie Powell of MadMemorial.
Finally, no doubt that HA's depth is something few if any D1 teams in the state can match. The Waukesha South sectional should be another really fast one this year.
MG won the BOO.Relay with some great swims. keep it up ladys
Post a Comment