Spartans march on

Led by three record-breaking performances, McFarland rolled to its fourth straight Div. 2 state title Friday night at a very loud and boisterous UW Natatorium.

The Spartans rang up 340.5 points -- more than the 332 by last year's dominant squad -- to easily top Whitefish Bay (238). The Blue Dukes swam well all night long, and their runner-up trophy was well-deserved (and the team's fifth in the past seven years). But McFarland right now just has too much depth and firepower for the rest of the D2 field.

Monona Grove took third (187) in a spirited battle with Shorewood (187) and Madison Edgewood (176) for third.

Coverage, with lots of videos from winning Spartans, from the Wisconsin State Journal:
http://host.madison.com/sports/high-school/swimming/article_f6a17ce6-1de2-11df-9f97-001cc4c03286.html

Coverage here from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/84830737.html

Highlights:

-- McFarland got its first record of the night in the first swimming event, winning the 200 medley relay by a whopping 4+ seconds with a time of 1:36.36, topping Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door's record of 1:37.15 from 2005. Sophomore Ryan O'Donnell outsplit the field by more than a second with his 23.46 opening back leg, and fellow sophomores Jake Mandli (breaststroke), Collin Morgan (fly) and senior Peter Grenzow (free) had open water the rest of the race to chase the record. Grenzow earned a place in state history by anchoring the medley to four straight state titles.

-- O'Donnell can now lay claim to being D2's best swimmer after Friday night's performance. Besides leading off the medley, he took the 200 IM in 1:53.44 (6th-best all time in D2), beating Milton's Jeff Maxwell by 3+ seconds. He then took the 100 fly in a race that lived up to its billing as the best of the night. It was a race that featured O'Donnell matched up against Brookfield Academy's Jack Donovan and Edgewood's Drew teDuits. As the three swimmers hit the wall for the final turn, it looked to be anyone's race. But O'Donnell's tremendous push off the wall and underwater pull took him nearly halfway down the lane, and he emerged from under the water with the lead. He touched out in 49.74, just edging Donovan's 49.87 as both swimmers celebrated breaking the previous record of 49.99 (John Cahoy of Hudson) that had stood since 1995. teDuits finished third in 50.27, still the 6th fastest time ever posted in the D2 state meet. To cap his record-breaking night, O'Donnell led off the Spartans 200 free relay with a 50 free split of 21.24, which would've easily won the D2 50 free title (Berlin/Green Lake's Greg Hameister won it in 21.89). Morgan and seniors Brian Heiser and Grenzow took off with the lead and closed out in 1:26.42, just edging the Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door record time of 1:26.63.

-- Edgewood senior Chase Stephens capped his fine career with wins in the 200 and 100 frees. He jumped off to an early lead in the 200 free, and held off defending state champ Heiser to win in 1:41.44, 6th best all time. The Northwestern-bound Stephens followed the same strategy in the 100 free, getting an early lead and closing out Delavan-Darien's Alex Riegert and Hameister by more than a second with a winning time of 46.74. Teammate teDuits defended his title in the 100 back, but drew a combined cheer and groan from the crowd when he touched out in 49.63, just two-hundreths of a second off the D2 state record of 49.61 held by Verona Olympia Neil Walker from 1994. teDuits' backstroke time is second-fastest in state history, D1 or D2. teDuits and Stephens then combined with fellow Crusaders Mark Vukich and Eric Madsen to close out the meet by winning the 400 free relay in 3:11.71, topping McFarland (3:14.44). It's the first relay in two years the Spartans have lost at state. The 400 free relay win took some of the edge off a disappointing start on the night for the Crusaders, as their 5th-seeded medley relay DQ'd.

-- As expected, Milton's Jeff Maxwell dominated the field in the 500 free, winning by more than 12 seconds with a time of 4:38.48. It was Maxwell's second state title in the event; he finished fourth or better in the 500 all four years of his high school career. He's now off to UW-Milwaukee to continue swimming and study for a career in pharmaceuticals, and Wisconsin high school swimming will miss him -- one of the real class acts in the sport.

-- Delevan-Darien's Riegert defended his state title in the 100 breaststroke, his 58.15 easily topping Plymouth's Jesse Gambrell (59.72). Nervous father Chuck Riegert, with his trademark blue-and-yellow moustache, cheered on his son from high atop the Natatorium stands: "He just didn't want to lose," he said afterwards.

-- MG senior Trevor Sisson capped a terrific career with a win in diving, his 420.05 points topping Cudahy's Ryan Citro by 27.10 points. Sisson uncorked a triple on his second dive that drew plenty of 7s from the dive judges to move out to an early lead and was the dominant diver all meet long. Sisson had placed 9th, 4th, and 3rd in previous state meets, and ended his career atop the podium.

-- Finally (and apologies are in order, for I can't really be objective about this...), has any team come from further back in fewer years than Monona Grove? In 2007, the Silver Eagles finished 10th at the Baraboo sectional meet with 76 points; only five teams scored fewer points in sectional competition in the entire state that year than MG. Three years later, the team grabbed 3rd place at last night's state meet. Coaches Jason Roth and Joel Coyne (himself a former MG swim star) have resurrected a program that made a bunch of parents (myself among them) and supporters very proud last night. So (if you'll indulge me...) here's to MG state swimmers and divers Trevor and Patrick Sisson, Austin Anderson, Mitchell Paull, Alex Heyworth, Jack Allen, Ben Weinhaus, Aaron Pomeroy, and Jake McDade (yep, he's mine), along with alternates Tyler Roehr and Sam Curcio. In the words of the team's motto: "Yeah buddy!"