Here's a rundown of the upcoming D2 boys season:
-- McFarland was an easy winner of its third straight state title last year, its 122-point margin over Whitefish Bay the largest at the state meet since 2005. Despite losing two senior stalwarts in Bradon O'Donnell and Graham Thoresen, the Spartans return more than enough talent to make a run at a fourth straight title. Coach Nick Weiss' squad is led by senior Brian Heiser -- the UW-Green Bay recruit is the defending state champ in the 200 free, finished 3rd in the 100 free, and swam on two gold-medal relays, including the team's record-breaking 400 free relay. He'll be joined by fellow senior Peter Grenzow, who qualified for state last year in both the 50 and 100 frees, and has anchored four Spartan relays to first-place finishes at state during his career. Sophomore Ryan O'Donnell had an impressive freshman campaign last year, when he finished 2nd (200 IM) and 3rd (backstroke) in his individual events at state and swam on two first-place relays. A host of other state-qualifying swimmers from last year's squad -- senior Ben Psyk, junior Geoff Glover, and sophomores Jacob Mandli, Collin Morgan, Max Schimanski and Ryan Krattiger -- also return, giving McFarland the kind of depth that few D2 teams can match. In fact, of the 17 individual "swims" McFarland had at state last year, the swimmers responsible for 13 of them return. It remains to be seen whether this squad can match the performance of last year's team, which won all three relays at state and had 8 individual top-3 finishes. But it's an awfully good -- and deep -- squad.
-- Perhaps the team best-suited to make a run at McFarland is last year's runner-up, Whitefish Bay. The Blue Dukes return a senior-dominated squad with considerable state-meet experience -- sprinter and UW-Madison recruit Chuckie Prestigiacomo (50/100 frees); Boston College-bound Jason Castillo (200 IM/breaststroke); Tommy Hiller (fly, 500 free); Chris Fink (200 free/backstroke); junior DJ Freisch (IM/breaststroke); and Walker Brengel (200 free). Add in seniors Rob Colton and Domi Lauko, both of whom swam on state-qualifying relays last year, and Whitefish Bay is one of the few teams in the state with the kind of depth needed to tangle with McFarland. The key for Whitefish Bay may rest in moving their swimmers into the top tier of competitors at the state meet -- WB's relays last year finished with two 3rds and a 9th, while its individual swimmers had five top-6 podium finishes compared to nine for McFarland.
-- Shorewood returns a strong nucleus of swimmers that helped the Greyhounds to a tie for 4th at last year's state meet. Leading the team is senior Stephen Meyer, who finished 2nd in both the fly and backstroke at state, and came within two-tenths of a second of winning both events. He's joined by junior Kasmir Bohannon (200 free/back); senior Mike Ross (IM/breaststroke); sophomore Jay Tomasiewicz (IM/500 free); senior Asher Kaufman (breaststroke); junior Isaac Flegel-Mishlove (500 free); and senior Arthur Staub (medley and 200 free relays). They'll need to replace the points at state generated by Karl Weisling, who had two podium finishes in the 200 and 500 frees as a senior last year.
-- Madison Edgewood features perhaps the best one-two punch in D2 in junior Drew teDuits and senior Chase Stephens. teDuits won the backstroke last year, nearly breaking the state record in the event, and finished 2nd in the 50 free, while contributing strong legs on Edgewood's medley and 400 free relays. The Northwestern-bound Stephens finished 3rd at state last year in both the 200 and 500 frees, and anchored two top-three relays. Edgewood -- which tied Shorewood for 4th last year at state -- will look for juniors Eric Wendorf and Eric Madsen, along with sophomore Mark Vukich, to step up to replace graduated state qualifiers Chris Kuecker and Matt Everts.
Other teams and swimmers to watch during the season:
-- Cedarburg graduated all of its 31.5 points it scored in diving at last year's state, along with distance swimmer Jim Akkala. But junior Carl Newenhouse (4th at state in the back, 11th in the 100 free) returns, as do state qualifiers Connoer Neuville (500 free), Nate Jones (back), and three-fourths of all three relays that made it to state.
-- Delavan-Darien returns Alex Reigert, the defending state champ in the 100 breaststroke who also finished 5th in the 100 free, along with Kevin Schneider, a state qualifier in the IM and fly.
-- Fort Atkinson is one of several D2 teams with a powerful twosome of swimmers returning: junior Evan Hill (6th in both the fly and back at state) and sophomore Wyatt Paul (7th in both the 50 and 100 frees), both also featured on Fort's two strong relays at state last year.
-- Brookfield Academy is home to another strong twosome -- between them, juniors Jack Donovan (200 free/fly) and Jonathan Marks (200 IM/breaststroke) had three top-six podium finishes at state.
-- Milton returns former state champion Jeff Maxwell, who finished second in the 500 free by less than a third of a second last year after winning the event as a sophomore. Maxwell, a versatile swimmer, also finished 4th last year in the 200 free. State qualifier Erik Swanson (breaststroke) also returns for the Redhawks.
-- Plymouth returns state qualifiers Jesse Gambrell (200 IM/breaststroke), Brian Linzmeyer (200 free) and Andrew Connor (breaststroke), along with state qualifying divers Zach Schroeder and Josh Suchon.
-- Monona Grove returns double state qualifiers Aaron Pomeroy (50/100 frees) and Jake McDade (200 IM/500 free), along with nearly all of the team's two relays (200/400) that qualified for state. Senior Trevor Sisson, 3rd last year at state, is the top returning diver in the state; freshman brother Patrick joins him on the boards this year.
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3 comments:
They probably won't be too big of a threat for a trophy, but Nicolet has been moved down to Division Two this year. They have seniors Shreya Patnaik and Ben Wynn returning from the Division One meet in the freestyle events, plus the manpower from others that it takes to get the free relays qualified for state.
I posted earlier this year on some of the moves up and down between the two divisions, and mentioned that Nicolet boys had moved down to D2. They seemed to be a senior-oriented squad last year, and other than Patnaik in the fly, I didn't see anyone returning for this year that had met last season's D2 qualifying standards (i.e, Wynn made it to D1 state last year in the 500 by winning the sectional, but Nicolet's new D2 sectional -- Cudahy -- is loaded with good distance swimmers). Still, if Nicolet stays in D2, they'll be a team to contend with in the long run -- that's a well-established program.
Another program that didn't make the D2 round-up was Ashwaubenon, which lost its top 4 or 5 swimmers to graduation --nearly all of the points that earned them 3rd last year at state. But, again, that's traditionally a pretty strong program.
Wynn's club times would have qualified him last year in the 50, 200, and 500 frees. He is also just shy on the 100.
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