Hosack, Stegner make the biggest splashes
MADISON – One swam against herself. The other raced against convention.
Neither would be denied. Cedarburg’s Lillie Hosack and Menomonee Falls/Sussex Hamilton’s Cassie Stegner went home big winners at the WIAA Division 1 state meet Saturday at UW Natatorium.
Hosack, a senior, defended her title in the 200-yard individual medley by crushing the state record she set last year and led the Bulldogs to their second second-place finish in four seasons. Stegner, a sophomore who attends Falls, was a surprise winner of the 100 and 200 freestyles.
Their performances highlighted a meet that produced a second straight title for Middleton.
The Cardinals finished with 313.5 points. Cedarburg had 242.
“It’s kind of nice to come full circle and come back to second place my senior year,” said Hosack, who was a freshman on the school's other state runnerup squad. “I thought all the girls on the team did amazing this year. We had a lot of freshmen. We had a lot of new swimmers at the state meet, so it was definitely going to be a challenge but I thought they did amazing.”
The young group witnessed greatness from Hosack in the 200 IM. Last year she won in 1 minute 59.47 seconds to beat the record held by her former teammate and one of the state’s all-time great swimmers, Katie Drabot. This year she smashed her 2016 time by posting a 1:58.13.
The Wisconsin recruit took added motivation when she learned her pool record had been broken by a North Carolina State’s Julie Poole last month. Feeling comfortable that she could beat the field, Hosack raced the clock and posted a time that made the N.C. State freshman's time of 1:58.99 pale in comparison. “I think it’s cool to have the record for Cedarburg, but also to have my name up there because I’m going to Wisconsin next year,” Hosack said.
“So I’m not only representing Cedarburg but Wisconsin with that time. It just makes me excited for the future and what else I can accomplish next year with the team.”
Stegner should be excited about the future, too. The paths to her titles were unique.
Usually the meet’s winners come from the middle lanes – Nos., 4, 5 and 6 – of the final heat but Stegner came out of Lane 8 to win the 200 free in 1:49.77, one-hundreth of a second faster than top-seeded Julia Stupar, a senior from Stevens Point.
Stegner took the 100 free crown even though she didn’t swim in the fastest heat. She won out of the second-fastest heat and even then she had the fifthfastest seed time of that group.
“After I saw the last heat swim, I just went into shock again because I really didn’t know what to feel,” said Stegner, who took fourth in the 200 and ninth in the 100 last year. “I was just standing there like ‘Whoa’.”
Hosack, who also took second in the 100 backstroke and 200 medley relay, teamed up with sophomore Maya Novack, junior Erika Remington and freshman Brigid Gwidt to win the final event, the 400 free relay in 3:24.46.
The Bulldogs also got a second-place finish in the 200 free relay, a third-place finish from senior diver Adriana Avila and a fourth-place showing in the 50 free and a fifth-place finish in the 100 butterfly from Remington.
The performance was bittersweet for coach Amit Kaul, who thought his team could have made a better run at Middleton for the title.
“We’ll take the good and not so good and learn from it,” he said. “I’m happy with runner-up, but we’ll be back and we want to continue to push for the next step.”