A quick round-up of Milwaukee-area conference meets:
-- Hartland Arrowhead, the top-ranked team in Div. 1, romped to a win in the Classic 8 conference meet, trumping second-place (and #3 ranked) Waukesha South/Mukwonago 731-581. HA won all but one of the 12 events (only sophore Anna Meinholz of Waukesha Catholic Memorial prevented the sweep with a 1:06.21 win in the 100 breaststroke), and posted some very fast times in (it must be said) the very fast Waukesha South pool. Star freshman Julie Mikota swept the free sprints (24.01 in the 50, 52.46 in the 100), while Tracy Vogel swept the two long free races (1:53.72 in the 200, 5:01.53 in the 500). Two-time state champ Emma Goral won her specialty -- the 100 fly -- in a very fast 56.63, and contributed legs on all three winning relays. In an interesting twist, sophomore Haley Pietila won both the 200 IM (2:06.72) and 100 back (58.01) -- times competitive with the best in the state in races she normally doesn't swim. When sectional psych sheets are posted this week, it will be interesting to see what Pietila chooses for her two races -- she was state runner-up in the 200 and 100 frees last year, and has swum the 50 free on occasion this year. Her conference showing certainly gives her plenty of options. With all of its depth, internal team competition for relay spots has been fierce this year at Arrowhead. All three relays are a threat to win at state, with the 400 free relay team of Goral, Pietila, Mikota and Kate Jones -- which ripped off a 3:33.66 at the conference meet -- looking especially tough.
-- Menomonee Falls/Hamilton capped a terric day for the M.Falls athletic programs (the football team knocked off defending D1 state champs Mequon Homestead the same afternoon) with a thrilling win at the Greater Metro conference meet, edging Brookfield Central 572-562, with Brookfield East in third with 448 points. MF/M clinched the conference meet championship with a win in the final event, the 400 free relay, swum by Haley Lucas, Amanda Siehs, Briana Botros, and Grace Devine. MF/H won all three relays at the meet, while Siehs captured both free sprints (25.40 in the 50 free and 54.92 in the 100 free). Brookfield East's Sara Brzozowski was a double winner, taking the 200 free (1:56.11) and the 500 free (5:10.50). Brzozowski, a sophomore, has shown solid improvement this season from her freshman campaign; she's a threat to swim in the final heat of both events at D1 state this year.
-- Mequon Homestead continued its strong run of conference championships at the North Shore meet, with an easy win over Whitefish Bay 475-336. Grafton finished 3rd with 298 points, followed by Cedarburg with 250. For Homestead, the largest school in the conference, it was a case of superior depth triumphing; Miaya Hillard was the lone individual winner for Homestead, with a win in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.48). The team also got a win from its 200 free relay. Double-winners at the meet included Cedarburg's Molly Piepenburg in the 200 and 500 frees (1:58.16 and 5:12.36 -- the senior had two podium finishes in these two events last year at D1 state) and Grafton senior Sadie Nening in the 200 IM (2:12.14) and 100 back (58.59).
-- Muskego, ranked #6 in the latest state coach's poll, swam to an easy victory at the Southeast Conference meet with a 603-351 win over Kenosha Bradford. Distance ace Brittany Walsh was a double winner for Muskego, winning her specialties (1:59.20 in the 200 free, 5:06.12 in the 500 free). Muskego also got a double win from sophomore Sami Pochowski (100 free -- 54.15; 100 breaststroke -- 1:10.97) and a win from sophomore Emma Szczupakiewicz in the 100 fly (1:01.23). The two sophomores also swam on the team's winning medley and 400 free relays. Muskego may not have the depth to tangle with the very top tier of D1 teams, but their top swimmers can compete with the best of the D1 field.
-- Shorewood topped D2 rival Whitnall in the Woodland conference meet, 415-319. New Berlin West finished 3rd with 266 points, followed by Pewaukee and Wauwatosa West tied for 4th with 237 points. Shorewood junior Clare Chamberlain won two events, one of them notably. She won her specialty -- the 200 IM (2:09.58) -- where she's the two-time defending state champ. But then she switched over to the 100 breaststroke, which she won with a 1:06.56, the second-fastest time posted this year in the event. Chamberlain has finished 2nd and 3rd the past two years at state in the 500 free, but she may be contemplating a switch. She's a very solid breaststroker, and with Kelsey Hojan-Clark looming in the D2 500 free (Hojan-Clark beat Chamberlain by 17 seconds earlier this season in the 500 at the Small School State Invite), she may be thinking the breaststroke is a better option. Senior teammmate Elli Sellinger added a win in the 100 free (54.09); she, too, may switch into this event this year for sectionals, after finishing 2nd in the 200 free at state last year and winning the 100 fly. Freshman Ellen Stello also had a terrific conference meet for the Greyhounds, with a win in the 500 free (5:21.18) and joining Chamberlain and Sellinger on the team's winning medley and 400 free relays. Shorewood is emerging as a real threat to bring home some hardware from what looks to be a very competitive D2 state meet this year.
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3 comments:
Thanks for the area round up Phil! I was at the Conference 8 meet and was very impressed with Arrowhead. You only highlighted the fact they won all but one event. What was much more telling of their depth was how they placed 2-8. For example, they had 7 of the top 8 finishes in the 100 Back; had 4 of the 5 top finishes in the 200 IM; went 1-2 in the 50 Free. Went 1-2 or 1-3 in all relays. Believe it or not, it is not the competition for relay spots at AHS that is fierce, it is competition to even be on the sectional or state team that is the most competitive. There are AHS swimmers who could qualify, swim and score at state for any other team, that won't be on the AHS state team. In some respects, the current qualification process is unfair to any swimmer who posts a fast time and could place quite high at state but won't swim based on the entry limits imposed by the current qualification process. This is why time standards are more fair to the swimmer and why having time standards would make the state meet a much better reflection of the depth and quality of high school swimming in Wisconsin.
James--
This is true; however, adding time standards to the high school format would make it much like the Club and Y swimming programs here in Wisconsin. If I'm not mistaken, Isn't that what the WIAA tries to keep away from? Don't we want to keep the High School Swimming layout different from the Club Swimming layout? It's a whole different aspect and another way to look at it. Also, you are going to have competition for the state team when you have a good team, such as Arrowhead, especially when a team is only allowed a certain number of entries in the state meet. That's just the way it goes, and if the WIAA wants to stay away from Club Swimming Layouts (i.e. No Time Standards, and No Prelim/Final Meets), then that’s how it is going to have to stay.
I agree, I believe that would show the depth and quality better, but then you automatically kick the small schools out of the party also. With more people in a school, comes a larger possibility of having faster swimmers in that school. If you have more swimmers with cuts in that school, that means a larger school would have more state swimmers than a smaller school would have (less students = less possibility of fast swimmers). With the 17 entry limit, this evens the playing field so that smaller schools with a number of good swimmers can still be competitive with larger schools with good swimmers and bigger teams. Since there are only 2 divisions in High School swimming, adding state cuts would either give a bigger advantage to larger schools, or would bring the need for more divisions. That is something, I would bet, the WIAA wouldn't do. So I don't think they could afford to do that, for the sake of the smaller schools, and to try to stay away from the Club Swimming scene.
--Joey
Thanks Joey, but I have to state I don't understand the insistance of many that high school swimming has to be different than club or USA swimming. For me it has nothing to do with that. It is all about how high caliber meets are conducted today. Let's take Minnesota as an example. They have time standards as well as a rule that states the top 2 finishers at sectional qualify for the state meet. They don't, as far as I know, have any entry limits by team. Additionally, they conduct both their sectional meets and state meet in a prelim/final format. This is "standard" swim meet format for all high level meets. In some ways you validated a point I made several posts ago by essentially stating it has always been this way and probably always will. In response to that I say welcome back to 1970: old pool, poor facility, out of date meet format, let's keep score with flip cards etc..and despite the efforts of Madsion Memorial to demonstrate a prelim/final meet can be conducted (Wisconsin Invitiational) at the state high school level, nothing will change. I say that is truly unfortunate.
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