Another D1 state meet, another meet full of surprises. The state's largest schools took to the Natatorium and produced another night of podium finishes out of the first and second heats, a record swim in the 50 free, and maybe the strangest and wildest outcomes in both the 200 and 400 free relays seen at state.
Amid all the action, Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial emerged with the first state title in program history. The Blackshirts scored 197 points -- the lowest winning total in D1 since the WIAA adopted 16-place scoring in 1982 -- to top defending state champs Madison Memorial by 14 points. Led by Greenfield/Greendale's 173 points, six others teams scored more than 100 points in the meet, and with the low winning score it proved that D1's top talent in Wisconsin is dispersed throughout all corners of the state.
UPDATE: Coverage here from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/84873477.html
...and the Wisconsin State Journal:
http://host.madison.com/sports/high-school/swimming/article_15a3dcec-1b45-11df-8641-001cc4c002e0.html
WS/CM isn't a terribly deep team, swam well but not great at the meet, and didn't win a single race all night; it's the rare state champ that has its highest-finishing relay at state barely make the podium (its 200 free relay finished 6th, ahead of Madison East and Chippewa Falls/McDonnell Central by a mere .05 seconds). Instead, the Blackshirts relied on a handful of reliable and versatile swimmers who kept the team in the running for the first-place trophy all meet long. Ryan Finke (200 free), Eric Oberst (fly), Collin Neitzel (breaststroke), and the Max Evans-Nolan/Noah Potratz combo(500 free) produced top-six podium finishes for WS/CM, and the 22 points that Neitzel and Oberst produced in the breaststroke gave the team the margin it needed heading into the meet-ending 400 free relay. Seeded third in the relay, WS/CM needed a 10th-place finish to clinch the win, and its 7th-place finish did the job. So there must be something about the Natatorium that suits the Blackshirts; they stamped themselves as contendor for the D1 state title at the Madison West Invite in early January, when they topped Memorial by 5-1/2 points to win.
The Blackshirts' workmanlike victory stood in stark contract to the fireworks produced by Greenfield/Greendale and Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights, as the two co-ops lit up the scoreboad with first-place and podium finishes throughout the meet. G/G's Mike Lucchesi -- one-third of a powerful trio for the team that swam great all day -- got things off to great start for his team with a blistering 1:41.71 200 free out of the first heat. No one came close to it in the second heat, and only Memorial's Michael Drives and his 1:39.66 topped it in the third heat. Jack Lennertz came out of lane 6 in the second heat to claim third place overall in the 50 free, then led teammate Matt Jungers to a 1-2 finish in the fly. Jungers added a third in the 200 IM, while Lucchesi moved up three seed spots to claim fourth in the 100 free.
Sauk, meanwhile, showed it meant business in the first swimming event of the night. Swimming out of lane 1 in the final heat of the 200 medley relay, backstroker Stephen Hanko got his team off to a solid start and then let seniors Tyler Lentz and Matt Friede take over. Lentz split a blistering 26.39 on his breaststroke leg -- faster than the field by more than half-a-second -- and flier Paul Ballweg handed a slight lead off to Friede, one of the great relay swimmers in recent state history. Friede closed out the impressive two-second win (1:35.53) with a 20.02 free split. Lentz turned right around and defended his state title in the 200 IM with a 4+ second win (1:50.29) that ranks third all time in state history, behind only former Arrowhead star Ben Anderson. Lentz added a dominating, 2+ second win the 100 back. Friede, meanwhile, took home gold medals in the 100 and 50 frees, the latter with a record 20.44 that topped Kyle Bubolz' previous record of 20.47. Friede's 45.01 in the 100 is third-fastest in state history, behind only Bubolz and 2008 Olympic star Garrett Weber-Gale.
The meet's craziest moments came in the two free relays. In the 200 free relay, the on-fire G/G trio of Lucchesi, Jungers and Lennertz, joined by senior Mark Liederbach, swam out of lane 7 in the second heat and posted a 1:26.05, nearly two seconds faster than any seed time for the final-heat relays. The final heat turned into a tense, two-team battle between Memorial and Verona/Mount Horeb, and as the anchor swimmers entered the water, Verona's Derek Toomey found himself more than a second behind Memorial's Ben Anderson, who had earlier finished 5th in the 50 free. Toomey proceeded to uncork a 19.78 anchor leg, the fastest by a Wisconsin swimmer at the state meet in two years. When he out-touched Anderson at the end, Toomey let out a wild yelp, thinking he'd finally won gold after two excrutiatingly close seconds to Friede in the 50 and 100 frees. But then another look at the scoreboard showed the final time -- 1:26.26, or second to the G/G relay.
It was a hard pill to swallow for a swimmer who swam great all night -- Toomey's 50 (20.57) and 100 (45.19) free times are both among the six fastest times in state history. He capped his night with a brilliant 44.66 anchor leg on the 400 free relay that gave his Verona team, which swam really well all day, a fourth-place podium finish. But his performance showed that swimming is indeed a contest of inches and split-seconds -- Toomey's three second-place finishes were by a combined .53 seconds.
As for the 400 free relay, it may be a while before a state meet sees another race unfold like the one Saturday afternoon. G/G, swimming the same foursome that won the 200 free relay, took off in the first heat and posted a 3:09.27, well under any of the seed times posted by the remaining 16 relays. But looming in the second heat was Sauk, which won this relay a year ago swimming out of the second heat. With Friede putting in the fastest split of the night -- 44.63 -- Sauk touched out in 3:09.25, topping G/G by just .02 seconds and drawing a large roar from the crowd and astonishment from many of the coaches gathered on the deck of the Nat. Then it was up to Memorial to put a finishing touch on the event to beat all others -- after Drives gave his team the lead with powerful third leg, Anderson motored through his anchor leg. With the clock ticking down, the sophomore touched out in 3:09.24. "Did we win? Did we win?" the Spartan relay swimmers asked each other. Yes, you did -- by the thinnest margin in swimming.
Other meet highlights:
-- Eau Claire Memorial/North freshman Alex DeLakis became the first freshman in three years to win an individual state title with a 57.98 win in the 100 breaststroke. DeLakis trailed Wisconsin Rapids senior Ryan Korslin by nearly a second at the turn for the second half of the race, before closing with a very quick 30.02 to close out the win.
-- Drives took the 500 free by more than seven seconds in 4:31.58 after his earlier win in the 200 free. He now owns two of the three fastest times in state history in both events.
-- Mequon Homestead junior Erik Larsen upset defending state champ Nathan Cox of Menomonee Falls/Germantown/Hamilton in diving, outscoring Cox 406.05-379.65.
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18 comments:
Waukesha South wins its first ever standalone championship and you comment on the fact that its score was the lowest since the WIAA went to this format, call their victory "workmanlike", highlight the fact that they won no event and that their relays were subpar for a champion. Those boys deserve a lot more credit than you wrote.
You don't mention Arrowhead at all.
What did G-G do at sectionals to have such poor seeds at state in those free relays? Even if they spread things out to try to get a medley in, you'd think one of those free relays would have been seeded higher.
Did South win the State Championship? You wouldnt know if from your comments below.
WS/CM isn't a terribly deep team, swam well but not great at the meet, and didn't win a single race all night; it's the rare state champ that has its highest-finishing relay at state barely make the podium (its 200 free relay finished 6th, ahead of Madison East and Chippewa Falls/McDonnell Central by a mere .05 seconds
Just completed a meet at South High School. Even non Waulesha Express parents that follow your blog were disgusted by your comments about South's victory. We have raved all season long about what great great work you did all season as the sole source for this information. Your D1 recap has soured most of us. Maybe you should have excluded Waukesha South from the recap completely and instead focused on how poorly Arrowhead fared after being ranked so highly all year. The South "team" is the D1 champion..regardless of how you felt about it
I've been slow to post comments submitted on this particular post, as I spent all of Sunday at a regional club swimming meet and all of Monday on deadline assignments. But I'll post the comments shortly here, and perhaps offer up a few comments on my own later.
Clearly many of you that follow this blog have lost sight of the concept of ownership and personal opinion. Interestingly I read nothing negative in the D1 comments but rather some rather frank comments about the reality of a "workmanlike" win. And what is wrong with a workmanlike championship? Isn't this what sport is all about or is it simply sour grapes being squashed because the "big boys" didn't get that team title? Also, as you criticize the owner/editor of this site would you please point me to a better blog that actually offers insight instead of insult? Freedom of speech is simply that, FREE. I may not agree with all of Mr. McDade's ommissions based on what he feels appropriate, but I do respect his right to edit HIS blog.
Phil, I guess you made a mistake. You didn't realize that you were not to report on the facts as you observed them. Apparently you are supposed to be the combination WS public relations department, and BlackShirts booster club.
Guess there is no pleasing some folks.
I feel like I missed something in this blog, based on the comments, because I didn't catch the apparent disrespect that everyone sees towards WS/CM. You did a great job opening the blog with an objective report on their swims and how they won the meet. On the coaching deck this week we've had similar discussions on the fact that they won by strong but not overpowering performances across the board, the true definition of a team effort, and in my mind workmanlike is a great way to put it. Keep up the good work!
It seems to me like "Another Wild Night at the D1 State Meet" was written very honestly. It is unusual to win with relays that don't finish in the top few spots. It is unusual to win without any individual wins. That doesn't make it an underserved win - just unusual (and a bit less dramatic). I see that as "workmanlike" too, but I see that word as a compliment. It's easy to win with a bunch of superstars. Waukesha South doesn't have superstars, but they still won, and they can be proud of that.
Perhaps another reason this win didn't seem so exciting is because so many of their swimmers actually swam slower than they did at sectionals. They "lost" a lot of points at state. I find it more exciting to watch the swimmers/teams that are dropping lots of time at state.
Finally, in light of the tragedies that occurred in the past week with some of our state's swimmers, it seems petty to write about not getting enough attention.
"Finally, in light of the tragedies that occurred in the past week with some of our state's swimmers, it seems petty to write about not getting enough attention."
In fairness to some of the commentators from WS/CM, I feel obligated to report that many of the comments were received Sunday, before the tragic events of this past week in swimming were really well-known.
"Maybe you should have excluded Waukesha South from the recap completely and instead focused on how poorly Arrowhead fared after being ranked so highly all year."
But then I'm sure you would have complained that Arrowhead was getting all the press. Mr. McDade did not post any false information, and certainly not any commentary worthy of such scathing remarks. I have relied on this blog for accurate and intelligent analysis all year, and I can say full-heartedly that that is what I've received.
The fact is the 2010 D1 State Championship was won with fewest points in the current state format. Is that a slap in the face? Not at all it is simply a fact and this quote is from the Sunday edition of the MJS, "I wouldn't say it was our best performance, but it was good enough," said Carlson, Coach of WS/CM. Good enough was good enough to win the golden trophy.
The following post is very refreshing and appreciated. This is what I would have appreciated as a summary of the WS victory.
It seems to me like "Another Wild Night at the D1 State Meet" was written very honestly. It is unusual to win with relays that don't finish in the top few spots. It is unusual to win without any individual wins. That doesn't make it an underserved win - just unusual (and a bit less dramatic). I see that as "workmanlike" too, but I see that word as a compliment. It's easy to win with a bunch of superstars. Waukesha South doesn't have superstars, but they still won, and they can be proud of that.
On the point made that WS lost a lot of points, Waukesha South was seeded first with 214 points.. they finished with 197. That means they finished with 92% of their expected point total. Only 1swim didnt score a point..
Thanks for your input!
I am surprised by the reactions to the original post...I also read it and found it to be an accurate representation of the meet. The Blackshirts have been getting tons of press all season, on the blog, in the Freeman and in the Journal; even when other teams and/or individuals were performing better.
Did WS/CM deserve to win the meet? Yes, they were solid throughout. Were their swimmers the only ones who deserve mention? Absoutely not.
Congratualtions to all!
Okay, WS/CM, please take your title and be happy. You won! Phil was simply comparing and contrasting their performance to the rest of the the state.
As seen here, not bagging on the team, but rather explain the unusual circumstances of this win:
"WS/CM isn't a terribly deep team, swam well but not great at the meet, and didn't win a single race all night; it's the rare state champ that has its highest-finishing relay at state barely make the podium."
Also, he did praise them, too:
"Instead, the Blackshirts relied on a handful of reliable and versatile swimmers who kept the team in the running for the first-place trophy all meet long."
Phil, very good job getting EVERYONE mentioned from that meet, including the winners. Keep up the great work!
--Max
I didn't see any disrespect in the article; rather an honest look at the results of the D1 meet. In fact, the way WS/CM's win was described explained the dynamic of the meet and how close the final results were.
You win some, you lose some, and on this night WS/CM came out on top. Why anyone would complain about the coverage on this blog is beyond me. It has been a source of fair and accurate information all season. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Phil,
I don't have a "dog in the fight", and thought your post-state meet comments to be a reasonably accurate reflection on what transpired. It's very clear to me that you acknowledge who the state champions are, and the fact that it was a tight competition. There were several teams who typically don't make much of a "splash" at the meet, that scored big this time round--taking away points that otherwise would have been garnered by the usual powerhouse teams. I think the dispersion of points made it such a tight and exciting meet.
Coming from a part of the state where swimmers are typically dismissed as non-contenders, it was very refreshing for me personally (and many other parents from our area) to find your blog and to see that you often did mention our region in a positive light.
I think it's unfortunate that others find fault so easily, rather than appreciate the fact that what you have provided is FREE of charge, and done on your own personal time for our benefit.
I hope you won't take the few negative comments too personally, and continue on with the blog--it has been a pleasure to come and look each day to see if there is something new.
As a last note, our hearts and prayers go out to the swimmers and their families injured and killed this past weekend (we knew many of them personally), and to those personally affected by Arrowhead's tragic loss.
Thanks again, and can't wait to see what's here next season!
Parent in Eau Claire
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