That 25th swimmer in the D1 500 free -- and the great race that produced it

As a commentator on the blog noted over the weekend, the D1 500 final at the Neenah sectional this past weekend produced an electrifying race between Shawano/Bonduel's Mackenzie Soper and Oshkosh West's Natalie Bolin.

Both state meet veterans (Soper finished 6th at the D2 state meet last year as a freshman in the 500 free; Bolin was 12th in the 500 free at the D1 meet)), the two went at each other stroke for stroke nearly 15 seconds ahead of the next swimmer and ended, fittingly, tied at the end -- 5:07.66. As such, both qualified for the state meet as a sectional winner.

But the race did something else -- yield another spot in the 500 free at the state meet. D1 normally features three heats of eight swimmers each in every event. But instead of six sectional winners, the 500 free this year has 7 sectional winners, because of the Soper-Bolin tie. According to WIAA rules, that means another swimmer beyond the normal 24 qualify for state in that event. See this from the WIAA's regulations and procedures section for swimming:

"Participating in the State Meet will be:
(a) Swimming
1) Winners of each event at each sectional.
2) Next 18 (Division 1) and 12 (Division 2) fastest individuals/relay teams (not including sectional winners) from all sectionals."

That rule was good news for Germantown's Kelly Theis. The junior had been seeded to qualify for the D1 state meet in the 200 free out of the Cedarburg sectional, but swam more than a second over her seed time and failed to get in. As it turned out, the 200 medley relay she anchored fell short of qualifying for state by .15 seconds. That left the 500 free, where she finished 5th in the sectional with a time of 5:18.72. For Theis, the tie between Soper and Bolin left her as the 25th qualifier for the state meet -- usually the worst place to finish. This year, it got her a berth in the state meet.