Two great dual meets

This week saw two terrific dual meets pitting top teams from both D1 and D2, both decided by a mere three points. Here are some highlights:

Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial 93, Brookfield 90

The WS/CM Blackshirts, #1 in the latest D1 state coaches poll, fended off a spirited bid for an upset from the #11 Brookfield Central/East co-op at the very fast Waukesha South pool. WS/CM clinched the victory with a win in the meet-ending 400 free relay, as the foursome of Alex Swain, Ryan Finke, Max Evans-Nolan and Dan Streater came out on top in very fast (and season-best for the team) 3:17.48. The Blackshirts needed the relay win to get the victory, as they were ahead by just one point heading into the final event.

The teams split the other two relays, with WS/CM taking the 200 medley (Streater, Colin Neitzel, Eric Oberst, and Evans-Nolan -- 1:43.32), while Brookfield took the 200 free relay (Erik Wahlgren, Siegfriend Speder, Theo LeClere, and Spencer Rose -- 1:32.08). Brookfield's relay depth helped keep the meet close, as their B relays took third place in all three relay events.

The meet got off to a bang with two great races in the opening two individual events. In the 200 free, Finke held off LeClere, 1:46.17 to 1:47.64. Then the Blackshirts' Neitzel just out-touched Brookfield's Rose in the 200 IM, 2:00.19 to 2:00.23 as both swimmers recorded season-best times, according to the WISCA top-30 times list. WS/CM's Swain continued to demonstrate he's probably the top D1 freshman this year in the state with wins in the 50 (22.51) and 100 frees (49.10). And WS/CM's big one-two punch in the 500 -- Noah Potratz (4:44.11) and Evans-Nolan (4:45.66)-- continued their dominating ways with a 1-2 finish in the long race.

Brookfield also kept the meet close with a 1-2-3 sweep in the diving that generated 13 points. But make no mistake -- this was a strong showing from the Brookfield co-op against one of the very best teams in the state. They'll meet again at the Metro Conference meet and at the Waukesha South sectional.

Cedarburg 93, Whitefish Bay 90

Led by junior Carl Newenhouse, host Cedarburg captured a close win over Whitefish Bay in a clash of D2 powers -- WBay #3 in the lastest D2 state poll, the Bulldogs #7. Relay depth played a big part in the win for Cedarburg; the team's B relays got critical third-place points in all three relays to help provide the margin of victory.

As for Newenhouse, he took on WBay's powerful 200 IM duo of Jason Castillo and D.J. Freisch and came away with a win, his 2:03.13 beating Freisch's 2:05.45 and Castillo's 2:06.95 (and it's an awfully rare sight in a D2 dual meet to see three IMers under 2:07, a testament to the quality of swimmers at this meet). Newenhouse, who has emerged this season as one of the best overall D2 swimmers in the state, then took the 100 free in 49.14. The 100 free proved to be a big turning point in the meet, as the Bulldogs added a 3rd from Michael Winter and a 4th from Nate Jones to go from being five points down to WBay to one point ahead. Notable, too, for the Bulldogs was Connor Neuville's win in the 200 free (1:54.72) over WBay's Chris Fink (1:56.02) in another quality race.

After the 100 free, the Bulldogs padded their lead through the next few events to give them enough cushion to withstand WBay's traditional meet-ending strength, as Friesch (1:05.65) and Castillo (1:06.88) went 1-2 in the breaststroke and the Blue Dukes very good 400 free relay of Chris Fink, Friesch, Castillo and Chuckie Prestigiacomo went 3:22.47 to easily win the last event. It will be interesting to see these two teams hook up again in the North Shore Conference meet in early February, and presumably we'll see more of these swimmers at the D2 state meet in three weeks.