Swimmers of the year

Time for year-end accolades:

D1

Swimmer(s) of the year: Try as I might, I simply can't separate the accomplishments this year of seniors Matt Friede and Tyler Lentz of Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights. In the words of the great philosopher Forrest Gump, they go together like peas and carrots. In their three years at Sauk, the twosome combined to win six individual state titles and were the major forces on four state-title relays (and another that came within .01 seconds of a fifth title). This year, they put together one of the great performances by teammates seen at a state meet -- Friede capturing the 50 and 100 free titles, and setting a state record in the 50 free (20.44, topping the 20.47 set in 2004 by Kyle Bubolz, one of the great Wisconsin high school swimmers of recent vintage), and Lentz swimming the third-fastest 200 IM in state history and then coming back to easily win the 100 back by more than two seconds. Then there were their contributions on Sauk's relays; a first-place medley relay out of lane 1, and then a remarkable near-repeat of their second-heat 400 free relay triumph of last year that fell just one-hundreth of a second shy of a four-gold medal day. Great careers capped by a great final meet. Runner-up: Madison Memorial's Michael Drives ended his terrific career, appropriately enough, on the winner's podium at the state meet following Memorial's thrilling win in the 400 free relay. Drives won three gold medals on the day, adding wins in the 200 and 500 frees with some of the fastest times ever posted by a D1 swimmer. Drives leaves Memorial as one of the state's most decorated swimmers, with four gold individual gold medals, one relay gold medal, and a member of Memorial squads that won two state team titles, and two runner-up trophies, during his career. Throughout it all, he remained humble in victory, gracious to others, and the very role model of a student-athlete -- he is off to West Point this fall. One suspects Drives preferred spending his last moments at a high school swim meet surrounded by teammates, celebrating a win accomplished together, instead of standing there by himself.

Relay of the year: At a state meet with three terrific relay performances, Sauk's first place in the medley wins out. Coming into the meet as the 7th seed, and swimming out of lane 1, the team of Stephen Hanko, Lentz, Paul Ballweg and Friede topped a #1 seeded Hartland Arrowhead medley that had been undefeated all season, and did it by two full seconds. Lentz and Friede, of course, were the relay's heavyweights, but the contributions of Hanko and Ballweg shouldn't be overlooked. Hanko opened with a 25.17 split on the back, only about a half-second behind Arrowhead, which gave Lentz the opening he needed to put his team in the lead after his breaststroke leg. All Ballweg had to do was keep his relay within striking distance of the lead, as Friede was clearly the fastest anchor in the field. Ballweg did better than that, his 23.95 fly leg giving Friede a lead that you knew he wouldn't give up. Sauk's two-second win was its fourth relay win in the past three years; Friede anchored all of them.

Race of the year: It'd be hard to top the craziness of the meet-ending 400 free relay, so we won't try. Three relays, three different heats, separated by three-hundredths of a second. Could it get any better? It may be years before Wisconsin swim fans see anything as entertaining as this year's 400 free relay at the state meet. So here's to: Greenfield/Greendale's team of Mark Liederbach, Mike Lucchesi, Matt Jungers, and Jack Lennertz, 3:09.27 (third place); Sauk's team of Lentz, Ballweg, Hanko, and Friede, 3:09.25 (runner-up); and the winning Memorial relay of Michael Salerno, Patrick Franken, Drives, and Ben Anderson, 3:09.24. Guys, it was quite a show.

Rookie of the year: Alex DeLakis of the Eau Claire Memorial/North co-op became the first freshman in three years to win in individual event at the state meet with his win in the 100 breaststroke, and he did it in thrilling fashion. DeLakis, third after 50 yards, delivered a 30.02 final split to earn a .58-second win over Wisconsin Rapids' Ryan Korslin. DeLakis added a runner-up finish in the 200 IM for an Eau Claire squad that finished 7th at state. Runner-up: Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial freshman Alex Swain played a central role in the Blackshirts' run to the state title. He scored six points in the 50 and 100 frees and -- just as importantly -- was a key cog in WS/CM qualifying all three relays to the state meet with final-heat seed times. Swimming the lead-off leg on both free relays, Swain helped the 200 relay finish 6th, and the 400 relay finish 7th at state.

D2

Swimmer of the year: On a team with a ton of very good swimmers, McFarland sophomore Ryan O'Donnell stood out this year, and capped a great season with a state meet for the ages. Two individual wins (200 IM, 100 fly, with the fly time of 49.74 breaking a 15-year-old state record), two relay wins, both in record time. O'Donnell comes from great lineage -- brothers Derrick and Brandon also won individual state titles -- but Ryan may turn out to be the best of the three. A truly dominating performance that surprised even his father. "I wasn't expecting this," said his father, Larry, amid the McFarland fans celebrating the team's fourth straight state title. Runner-up: Four years ago, Madison Edgewood's Chase Stephens was a skinny, tall freshman who had trouble executing a basic flip turn -- and couldn't break 56 seconds in the 100 free at the sectional meet. He ended his high school career with three gold medals around his neck -- wins in the 200 and 100 frees, and a meet-fastest 45.85 anchor leg that clinched Edgewood's win in the 400 free relay. Any swimmer who achieves a state title has worked hard, but few have had such a meteoric rise as Stephens. He's off to Northwestern this fall to continue his swim career.

Relay of the year: McFarland came into the D2 state meet having won the medley relay three years in a row. Could they make it four? No problem. Sparked by O'Donnell's dominating lead-off leg in the backstroke, McFarland breezed to a 4+ second win in the relay, and broke the previous state record by nearly eight-tenths of a second. Senior Peter Grenzow achieved (we think) state history by anchoring the same relay to victory four years in a row. How fast was O'Donnell's opening 23.46 back leg? Faster -- by more than a second -- than anyone swam in the D1 or D2 meets. It would've finished T-13th in the 50 free at the D2 state meet. (And don't look, but the first three medley relay swimmers for McFarland -- O'Donnell, Jacob Mandli on breaststroke, and Colin Morgan on fly -- are all sophomores.)

Race of the year: In a race that lived up to its pre-meet billing, the 100 fly proved to be the fastest and best race of the state meet, with both O'Donnell (49.74) and Brookfield Academy's Jack Donovan (49.87) going under the previous state record of 49.99 held by Hudson's John Cahoy from 1995. Both O'Donnell and third-place finisher Drew teDuits of Edgewood switched into the event this year, and all three swimmers came into the final turn with a chance to win. But O'Donnell's tremendous push off the wall gave him the slighest of leads when he finally emerged above water, and he held off the on-coming Donovan. The race was so fast that Shorewood's Stephen Meyer, who cut more than four seconds off his seed time and finished 4th with a time of 51.01, would've finished second in the D1 state meet.

Rookie of the year: Grafton's Al Nenning, another competitor from a great swim family, showed he'll be a force in D2 swimming in future years with podium finishes in both the 200 IM (6th) and 100 back (5th). He was the only D2 freshman to qualify in two individual events this year. Runners-up: Two tall freshman -- Fort Atkinson's Lee Hollman, and Monona Grove's Mitchell Paull -- will be seeing a lot of each other in the coming years. The Badger Conference South swimmers both qualified for the 100 back in their freshman years, and both earned spots on state-qualifying relays for their teams.