Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial wins.
Strong finish leads to victory
MADISON - As Blaine Carlson stood on the deck of the pool at the UW Natatorium late Saturday afternoon, one hoped that he had a second set of clothes.
Drenched from head to toe, the longtime Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial boys swim coach took a break from celebrating the school’s first state title since 2010 to ease those concerns.
“If we’re close, you pack an extra one just in case,” he said.
South/Memorial wasn’t just expected to compete for the WIAA Division 1 state title, it was expected to bring home the gold. The team spent the last seven weeks of the season at No. 1 in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association ranking and won its typically strong sectional by 1231⁄2 points.
Saturday, the team outscored six-time defending state champion Madison Memorial in four of the final five events to pull away and earn Carlson and his swimmers a plunge into the pool to celebrate. The final tally for the top two spots: South/ Memorial 246, Madison Memorial 216.
“It’s almost unbelievable. We didn’t know what to think on the last relay,” junior John Acevedo said. “We kept saying it feels unreal. We’ve been saying that for the past three years. The perfect storm. The perfect storm. It finally happened.”
The perfect storm, in this case, included a state title in the 500-yard freestyle from Acevedo, points from every entry South/Memorial had in the meet and a stretch of 66 1/2 points in the 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 500 free that set the stage for the strong finish.
“That was a turning point for us,” Carlson said.
South/Memorial’s performance highlighted a day when Wauwatosa’s Danny Larson and Kenosha Tremper’s Ben Spencer defended titles, Brookfield Central/East’s Ryan Linnihan emerged as a surprise winner in the 50 freestyle and three state records were set.
Two of those marks were set by Eau Claire Memorial/North senior Paul DeLakis. He broke his 2015 mark of 1 minute 46.91 seconds in the 200 individual medley with a 1:46.18 and later beat his brother Alex’s 100 breaststroke record of 54.56 with a 54.08. The other record belonged to Hudson’s Shane Blinkman, whose time of 48.84 in the 100 backstroke beat the 2013 mark of 49.34 set by Homestead’s Nick Peterson.
Winning wasn’t a sure bet for any of the local champs.
■ Larson, the defending 100 free champion, finished second at the sectional to Arrowhead’s Lucas Farrar and took second at the Woodland Conference meet in the 200 free to Greenfield/Greendale/Pius XI junior Ben Davis.
The setbacks provided the Pacific recruit the wake-up call he needed. Saturday he won the 200 free in 1:38.95, which was almost 2 seconds faster than the runner-up. Later he won the 100 free in 46.13, which was a shade off his 2016 winning time of 46.0.
“That definitely motivated me going into this,” Larson said of the lateseason losses. “This year I was more of a front-runner. In years past I’ve been a huge underdog, but that was a big slap in the face like you’ve got to earn it. It’s not going to come easy.”
■ Spencer, who came into the meet seeded second, handled the pressure of being a defending champion and took the diving title with a score of 508.20. Last year he won with a 501.90.
“That high expectation put pressure on me, but when it came down to it, it all helped out in the long run,” Spencer said. “I work good under pressure, I think.”
■ Linnihan came out of Lane 2 to win the 50 free in 20.99 and get the final say in the back and forth between him and Farrar. Farrar beat Linnihan at the sectional after Linnihan finished first at the conference meet.
The only other area champion was Acevedo, who took the 500 free in 4:30.12 to highlight South/ Memorial’s highest-scoring event. Freshman Caleb Blischke finished sixth in 4:39.66 for 13 points and senior Andrew Derzay took 12th in 4:51.15 for five more.
The 38 points from that event turned a 130-1071⁄2 lead for Madison Memorial over South/Memorial after seven events into a 145.5-135 advantage for South/Memorial after eight events.
The next race, South/ Memorial’s 200 free relay of freshman Jacob Carlson, junior Conrad Farrell, Acevedo and senior Jeremy Nagy took second in 1:25.74 to increase the lead to 161⁄2 points.
There was still some work to do, but South/Memorial was on its way to wrapping up a long-awaited title.
“We wanted to end the back end (of the meet),” Acevedo said. “We were actually only in second to Memorial because we were expecting to not be in the top three in the first part of the meet. We all dug deep and gave our all for the team.”