The Hartland Arrowhead express rolled along at Saturday's Div. 1 sectionals; the team easily won the Waukesha South/Mukwonago sectional (424 points), took 7 of the 11 swimming events (including all three relays), and placed all 16 of its swimmers into the state meet this coming Saturday. For good measure, diver Mary Woodson won the sectional title as well, and teammate Lindsey Day qualified in diving.
HA has been the dominant team in D1 all season long, and nothing they did Saturday disproved the notion that the real race at the state meet will be for the runner-up trophy. The medley relay of Kate Jones, Caryn Knight, Emma Goral and Haley Pietila got things off to a fast start for HA, winning in 1:46.28, more than two seconds faster than the best time posted this season by any medley relay in the state. Jones (back), Goral (fly), and Pietila (100 free) all posted individual wins with times that will move them into the inner lanes of the last, fastest heat at state. Freshman star Julia Mikota added the team's 4th individual win in the 50 free. Overall, it was just a dominant day by HA, as none of the team's swimmers finished lower than 5th in an event.
But, as is usually the case at the very fast Waukesha South pool, there were plenty of other fireworks. Waukesha South/Mukwanogo and Muskego ended up tied for second with 334 points, and each got some outstanding swims. For Waukesha South/Mukwonago, sophomore Kayla Skenandore had a terrific meet, winning the 200 free over Pietila by more than a second (1:51.07), and giving two-time defending state champ Emmal Goral a scare in the 100 fly, just getting edged 56.37-56.66 in a fast race that saw five swimmers go under 59 seconds. WS/M teammate Pamela Breitrick won the 200 IM. Muskego's distance aces Brittany Walsh and Jessica Wolf went 1-2 in the 500 and both went under 5 minutes (4:58.70 for Walsh, 4:59.90 for Wolf), while teammate Sami Powchowski won the 100 breaststroke. Both the runner-up teams qualified all three of their relays into the state meet.
Highlights from other sectionals:
Hudson
Wausau East topped Eau Claire Memorial 330-303.5 in a meet that, as expected, saw some very fast free sprint races. Wisconsin Rapids junior Becca Weiland won the 50 free (23.50) over WEast teammates Leo Koenig and Lauren Sichterman in a race that saw all three swimmers go under 24 seconds.Weiland came back with a win in the 100 free (51.53) and stamped herself as a real threat to capture the two sprint races at the D1 state meet. Weiland also anchored her team to a win in the 200 free relay in the race of the meet, as Rapids and WEast battled closely throughout the relay, with Rapids eeking out a win 1:38.35-1:38.49. WEast had earlier edged out Rapids in the 200 medley relay 1:49.64-1:50.08. Stevens Point freshman Natalie Neuwirth had a terrific sectional, winning the 200 free by more than four seconds (1:52.59) and finishing 2nd in the 100 free. Eau Claire Memorial freshman Leah Pronschinske was a double winner, in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke; her time of 1:03.22 in the breaststroke will earn her the top seed
at the state meet.
Neenah
Aided by a 1-2 finish by freshman divers Greysen Hertting and Mollie Patzke, the host Rockets easily won a sectional title 355-276.5 over runner-up Oshkosh West. Appleton East enjoyed a solid day in the relays, winning both the 200 and 400 free relays, while the 100 butterfly race was as good as advertised -- five swimmers broke 1 minute in the race, led by Green Bay Southwest/West's Kendra Rottier, who won it in 58.69.
Middleton
Madison Memorial used its usual combination of solid depth and oustanding work by senior Jackie Powell to win the sectional title with 349 points. Madison West, which swam very well all day long, edged Middleton for second place, 289-288. Powell took the 200 and 100 free titles, and anchored Memorial's winning 200 free relay. Madison East won seven of the 11 swimming events, with junior ace Aja Van Hout having a hand in four of them. Van Hout won both the 200 IM (2:03.57) and 500 free (4:58.71), swam lead-off on the winning 400 free relay (3:35.09), and breaststroke on East's winning 200 medley relay (1:48.94). East also got individual wins from Ivy Martin in the 50 free, Becca Soderholm in the 100 fly, and Chelsea Soderholm in the 100 back.
Cedarburg
Mequon Homestead topped Sheboygan North 368-309, with Menomonee Falls/Hamilton in third with 295 points. In the best race of the meet, Homestead's Kayla Dlugopolski captured one of her team's two individual wins in a tight duel with Cedarburg's Molly Piepenburg in the 500 free, winning by less than two-tenths of a second in 5:05.07. Sheboygan North's Parker Wolf won four times, with wins in the 50 and 100 frees, an anchor leg on the team's first-place 200 free relay, and the fly leg on the winning medley relay. Nicolet freshman Calli Head announced her arrival on the state diving scene with a win and a score of 461.15, second overall in the state to three-time defending state champ Kylie Rosenstock (473.20).
Kenosha Bradford
The Burlington swim co-op, which last year didn't send anyone to the state meet, changed that around this year with a sectional win, 372.5-271 over Badger/Big Foot/Williams Bay. Freshman Anna Brooks won the 200 IM (2:06.90), took second in the 500 free, and anchored the team's winning 400 free relay (3:38.77). Badger, meanwhile, got wins from both its medley and 200 free relays (they are the defending state champs in the medley), along with wins from Maddie Clark (50/100 frees) and Emily Russart (100 breaststroke -- 1:03.78). Russart's win in the breaststroke sets up the much-anticipated showdown in the event between her and Eau Claire Memorial's Pronschinske. Racine Case senior Paige Welaski had a solid meet with wins in the 200 free (1:55.00) and 500 free (5:03.17).
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11 comments:
Congratulations to all the girls at sectionals I feel there was a great race that was over looked at the Neenah Sectional. The 500 free had to be the greatest race of the day between Shawano/Bonduel swimmer MacKenzie Soper and Oshkosh West swimmer Natalie Bolin.
Soper seeded with a 5:22.34 and Bolin with a 5:14.07 battled the whole race with an outstanding finish with a tie of 5:07.66. It was very exciting to watch two swimmers acheive such a great finish time and then to tie for 1st was amazing to watch. Good luck at state to the both of you.
Can you comment on the Sr. Badger swimmer Lyndsey Mikrut disqualification at the Kenosha sectional? Is there really a ruling through wiaa that swimmers are not allowed to shave on-site?
I happened to be talking to a WIAA official this weekend and heard about the "no shaving on-site" rule. He said that was one reason they need more women WIAA officials...to check out the girls locker rooms before meets and make sure no one is shaving! I thought it was kind of strange, but I asked my son - who is a senior in high school - and he said his coach talks to the team about that rule every year.
"Can you comment on the Sr. Badger swimmer Lyndsey Mikrut disqualification at the Kenosha sectional? Is there really a ruling through wiaa that swimmers are not allowed to shave on-site?"
I have an email out to clarify the ruling on the shaving issue. Without pre-judging until I hear back, I would note that a quick review on the Web suggests on-site shaving -- for health reasons -- is identified at various club meets around the country and at least one state high school association (New York) that I came across as an automatic DQ.
Good catch on the 500 free at Neenah -- the closest of many close races this past weekend. I'll post an item this week on it.
We had girls from prominent teams that send state qualifiers not in the Classic 8 Conference wearing illegal suits during warm ups thinking that they were good to go. These were coach's that have been around for a while, still not knowing the rules. The girls had to change before the first race.
I would rather not identify the team to protect them.
I would assume Mirkut will still be available to swim relays at state. I wonder how much scrambling they had to do to restack the relays on the fly Saturday?
In addition to being a great race, the tie for first place at sectionals created an opening for a 25th swimmer in the 500 at state. Interesting outcome all around.
The Badger Relay performed admirably, still winning handily. It appeared that the replacement was upset about the happenings and swam her heart out. The final time was a shade off the seed time.
The 500 free... so the winning tie opens up the event for 25, since it is sectional winners plus 18, however, how did the event end up with 26? Yes the one winner was below the cutoff, but how does that mean the one above her got in?
I think its still 25 in the 500. Two heats of 8, one heat of 6 one heat of three. I think they must set the sectional winners aside, in this case all 7, and then count the next 18 times.
That's correct; here's the excerpt from the WIAA's regulations and procedures:
"Participating in the State Meet will be:
(a) Swimming
1) Winners of each event at each sectional.
2) Next 18 (Division 1) and 12 (Division 2) fastest individuals/relay teams (not including sectional winners)
from all sectionals."
So, given that there were 7 sectional winners in D1 500 free (with the tie for 1st out of Neenah), that means 18 additional swimmers get in. So, 25 swimmers. First heat of the 500 has three swimmers, the next one has six swimmers, and the final two heats have eight swimmers
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