The British pop singer Duffy raced to the top of the music charts last year with her song "Mercy" that featured the refrain: "I'm begging you for mercy."
High school swimmers may want to add the song to their I-Pods/phones/touches when they go up against McFarland this year. Against a pretty good field of teams, the Spartans romped to victory at the Blackhawk Invite at Fort Atkinson HS Saturday. McFarland easily topped a solid Verona squad 452-380, with Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights (last year's D1 state runner-up) in 3rd (247), Madison Edgewood (T-4th last year at D2 state) in 4th (234.5) and the host Blackhawks in 5th (219). Even more impressive -- the Spartans routed the field without top sprinter Peter Grenzow, who took the meet off to take college-prep exams.
Looking sharp for McFarland were senior Brian Heiser and sophomore Ryan O'Donnell. Heiser looked like he's ready to defend his D2 state title in the 200 free with a 1.34-second win in the 200 free (1:46.62) over Edgewood senior Chase Stevens (1:47.96). O'Donnell won the 200 IM over Verona's Spencer Ritt in an impressive early-season time of 2:01.90. Owing in part to Grenzow's absence (a key member of McFarland's relays the past few years), the Spartans didn't win any relays, but (in a meet that allowed both A and B relays for scoring) utilized its great depth to earn top-8 finishes by both relays in each of the three relay events.
One indication of the Spartans' depth -- junior Geof Glover. Last year, McFarland was so deep Glover only swam one event at the sectional qualifying meet -- the 100 back, in which he qualified for state. This year he appears poised to add the 200 IM, as he raced to 3rd place at the meet with an impressive 2:08.08 -- a time that would've qualified for state last year in the event. He added a 4th-place finish in the backstroke.
Other meet highlights:
-- Verona's Derek Toomey won both sprint showdowns with Sauk's Matt Friede, winning the 50 free (21.55 to 21.81) and the 100 free (47.73 to 47.94). As someone said to me after the meet, it's not that the Purdue-bound Friede is swimming slow early in the season; it's that Toomey is razor-sharp early on. These two will see more of each other throughout the season, including the Madison West Invite in January and the Middleton sectionals.
-- Sauk's Iowa-bound Tyler Lentz and Edgewood junior Drew teDuits went up against each other twice, with each winning once. Lentz topped teDuits, one of the best juniors in the state, 52.18 to 53.19 in the fly, but teDuits came back to beat out Lentz in the backstroke, 52.50 to 52.80, with O'Donnell coming in 3rd at 53.90. It will be interesting the see where these two swimmers line up at sectionals; Lentz, who won the 200 IM at D1 state last year, was third at state in the back, and the other top-five finishers in the backstroke all graduated. teDuits, fresh off an appearance at the short-course nationals meet in Washington, will certainly swim the back as the defending D2 state champ. He's a very good flier, but also finished 2nd in the 50 free at D2 state (and last year's state champ graduated).
-- The three top teams battled it out in the meet's final event, and Friede helped Sauk pull out the win in the 400 free relay with a 46.99 anchor leg. Toomey's 46.53 anchor leg was not quite enough, as Sauk ended up winning with a 3:21.87 to Verona's 3:22.49. McFarland back-loaded its 400 free relay, and despite two sub-49-second splits from Heiser and O'Donnell, had to settle for third with a 3:22.97 -- all solid early-season times.
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