Hayes wins two events for second straight year
MADISON – Every year is different for Ben Hayes.
The Brown Deer/University School senior’s specialty is the individual medley, and the stroke that he feels the best about varies from year to year. This year he felt good about his butterfly.
“I was swimming really well in practice and in meets early in the season, which was putting me with (Monona Grove’s) Eric Storms, so I thought it would be a great race and I thought I’d have a chance of winning it,” Hayes said.
The Brown University recruit proved to be right on both fronts Friday at the WIAA Division 2 state meet at the UW Natatorium.
Hayes won two races for the second straight year, defending his title in the 200-yard IM and then using a strong finishing kick to edge Storms for the 100 fly title. Hayes’ times of 1 minute 50.28 seconds and 49.62 seconds, respectively, were the third- and secondfastest all-time for the events.
The performance gave Hayes four state titles over three events the past two seasons. Last year he won the 100 breaststroke. This year he knew Sturgeon Bay senior Max McHugh was entering the event and decided another race would be a better move.
“I knew I’d have a fighting chance in the 100 fly,” Hayes said.
Once again, Hayes’ gut feeling didn’t fail him.
The 2018 state meet will be one followers of the sport talk about for years to come and McHugh was a major reason why. The senior, who had competed exclusively with his club team until this season, set a state record in the 50 freestyle and then posted a national mark of 51.62 in the 100 breaststroke.
McHugh was arguably the star of the meet on a day when Monona Grove won its fourth straight title and Silver Eagles senior Ben McDade won titles in the 200 free, 500 free, 200 free relay and 400 free relay to raise his career total to 15, the most for a boy swimmer in WIAA history.
As for McHugh, he knew a national record was within his reach.
“I did a 53.0 at sectionals and I knew I went out slow in the first 50, so I knew I could come back faster and I knew I could go faster,” he said. “It’s been an awesome meet with my teammates. We came in and set goals and we met them. I’m proud of my time, but I’m proud of my teammates also.”
McHugh set the tone for his recordsetting day by breaking one of the meet’s oldest records in the 50 free. His winning time of 20.34 beat the 20.59 Brookfield East’s Tom Wanezek set in 1995. In the breaststroke, McHugh crushed the national record, which was 52.65.
His closest competition in the pool Friday, Sturgeon Bay sophomore Brock Aune, was more than 7 seconds back.
Earlier Hayes pulled off his own dramatic finish to nip Storms, 49.6249.65, in the 100 fly after trailing for the entire race.
“My opening 50 was a 23.6 (and a teammate) said I didn’t know you could make a 23.76 look that slow, so the first 50 didn’t feel great,” Hayes said. “But when I hit the 15-meter mark on the third lap, something just kind of clicked and all of a sudden my arms weren’t tired and I knew I could hunt him down.”
Monona Grove easily won the team race. Elkhorn took fifth for the area’s best finish and, according to coach Jamie Richardson, the best finish in school history.
The team’s best showing came in the 200 free relay, where the team of sophomore Hunter Johnson, junior Derek Gauger, sophomores Willy Pinnow and Lucas Koepke finished fourth in 1:30.77.
“We are a pretty young team,” Richardson said. “In our whole program we have two seniors and one was here tonight. We have a fairly young team so hopefully we’ll be back next year.”
RESULTS
DIVISION 2 Team scores — 1, Monona Grove 333; 2, Edgewood 191; 3, Ashwaubenon 174; 4, Lakeland Union 143.5; 5, Elkhorn 136.5; 6, Sturgeon Bay 135; 7, Baraboo 119; 8, Brown Deer/University School 110; 9, Plymouth 100; 10, McFarland 91; 11 (tie), DeForest, Grafton, and Port Washington 73; 14, River Falls 59; 15, Rhinelander 53; 16, Shorewood 48; 17, Cedarburg 47; 18, Whitefish Bay 44; 19, Fort Atkinson 38; 20, Berlin/Green Lake 31; 21 (tie), Pulaski, Whitewater and Tomahawk 30; 24, Chilton 28; 25, Nicolet 24; 26, Stoughton 18; 27, Oregon 17; 28, Rice Lake 16; 29, Kiel/Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah 14.5; 30, Milton 14; 31, South Milwaukee 11; 32, Whitnall 9; 33, Delavan-Darien 7; 34, Antigo 2.50; 35, Saint Thomas More/Saint Francis 2. Event results — 1 meter diving: 1, Ben Stitgen, EDG, 401.95; 2, Garrett Gonwa, CED, 389.5; 3, Cale Theis, PW, 361.8; 4, Nathan Kasdorf, PW, 346.9; 5, Charlie Aschenbach, PLY, 342.25; 6, Huck Boles, RF, 337.85; 7, Steven Blew, MG, 335.35; 8, Alec Nicholson, PLY, 332.15. 200 yard medley relay: 1, MG (Eric Storms, Josh Douberly, Bronz Geissler, Shane Sackett), 1:34.85; 2, EDG (Alex Moen, Truman teDuits, Tommy Beyer, Sean O’Conner), 1:37.95; 3, SB (Luke Bousley, Max McHugh, Brock Aune, Evan Smith), 1:38.46; 4, ASH (Joe Stone, Joe Steffel, Kole Kolinski, Matthew Farley), 1:40.25; 5, BD/USM (Ben Hayes, Caleb Saffold, Sam Lorge, Matthew Lepine), 1:41.41; 6, MF (Truitt Landolt, Alex Slane, Nicholas Schaller, Logan Schulz), 1:42.04; 7, DF (Ben Ramminger, Sam Neuman, Jacob Burgener, George Soucek), 1:42.39; 8, BAR (Aidan Lohr, Jocob Laux, Luke Stelling, Ethan Klingenmeyer), 1:42.55. 200 freestyle: 1, Ben McDade, MG, 1:40.32; 2, Jack Garcia, LU, 1:45.47; 3, Ben Bouchard, PUL, 1:47.06; 4, Logan McLaughlin, RF, 1:47.25; 5, Mark Teske, ASH, 1:48.06; 6, Hunter Johnson, ELK, 1:48.55; 7, Alex Tucker, LU, 1:50.01; 8, Josh Hackbarth, BAR, 1:50.38. 200 individual medley: 1, Ben Hayes, BD/USM, 1:50.28; 2, Truman teDuits, EDG, 1:52.50; 3, Aidan Lohr, BAR, 1:56.74; 4, Sam Ryf, BER/GL, 1:57.38; 5, Young Liang, WW, 1:58.80; 6, Nick Starr, GRA, 1;59.09; 7, Josh Douberly, MG, 1:59.39; 8, Alex Slane, MF, 1:59.48. 50 free: 1, Max McHugh, SB, 20.34; 2, Shane Sackett, MG, 21.67; 3, Joe Stone, ASH, 21.96; 4, Travis Phillips, TOM, 21.98; 5, Jacob Lippiatt, MG, 22.01; 6, Nate Frucht, EDG, 22.09; 7, Lucas Koepke, ELK, 22.14; 8, Grant Gibson, LU, 22.22. 100 butterfly: 1, Ben Hayes, BD/USM, 49.62; 2, Eric Storms, MG, 49.65; 3, Sam Ryf, BER/GL, 52.38; 4, Travis Phillips, TOM, 52.96; 5, Evan Szablewski, SHO, 53.49; 6, Bronz Geissler, MG, 53.70; 7, Ben Schaefers, PLY, 53.96; 8, Jacob Burgener, DF, 54.13. 100 free: 1, Truman teDuits, EDG, 46.96; 2, Grant Gibson, LU, 47.87; 3, Shane Sackett, MG, 48.42; 4, Jeremiah Mansavage, FA, 48.45; 5, Mark Teske, ASH, 48.50; 6, Jacob Lippiatt, MG, 48.55; 7, Brock Aune, SB, 49.01; 8, Zach Miller, PW, 49.63. 500 free: 1, Ben McDade, MG, 4:32.54; 2, Evan Szablewski, SHO, 4:41.01; 3, Jack Garcia, LU, 4:41.12; 4, Nate Frucht, EDG, 4:45.66; 5, Ben Ramminger, DF, 4:50.29; 6, Willy Pinnow, ELK, 4:52.17; 7, Nick Starr, GRA, 4:52.71; 8, Jacob Douberly, MG, 4:55.72. 200 free relay: 1, MG (Shane Sackett, Bronz Geissler, Jacob Lippiatt, Ben McDade), 1:26.53; 2, SB (Max McHugh, Luke Bousley, Evan Smith, Brock Aune), 1:27.87; 3, LU (Brandon Boh, Liam Hogan, Grant Gibson, Jack Garcia), 1:29.60; 4, ELK (Hunter Johnson, Derek Gauger, Willy Pinnow, Lucas Koepke), 1:30.77; 5, BD/USM (Ben Hayes, Sam Lorge, Caleb Saffold, Matthew Lepine), 1:30.78; 6, ASH (Mark Teske, Spencer Klika, Nick Messamore, Joe Steffel), 1:31.16; 7, RHI (Joseph Heck, Martin Hoger, Devon Gaber, Russell Benoy), 1:31.50; 8, EDG (Sean O’Conner, Jacob Darien, Tommy Beyer, Nate Frucht), 1:31.66. 100 backstroke: 1, Eric Storms, MG, 50.18; 2, Joe Stone, ASH, 52.67; 3, Aidan Lohr, BAR, 52.82; 4, Ben Ramminger, DF, 54.19; 5, Zach Miller, PW, 55.03; 6, Ben Bouchard, PUL, 55.15; 7, Alex Moen, EDG, 55.76; 8, Joe Kroeger, RL, 56.68. 100 breaststroke: 1, Max McHugh, SB, 51.62; 2, Brock Aune, SB, 58.67; 3, Young Liang, WW, 59.43; 4, Josh Douberly, MG, 1:00.51; 5, Alex Slane, MF, 1:00.54; 6, Bronz Geissler, MG, 1:00.69; 7, Caleb Saffold, BD/USM, 1:02.35; 8, Parker Sonnabend, CHI, 1:03.26. 400 free relay: 1, MG (Eric Storms, Josh Douberly, Jacob Lippiatt, Ben McDade), 3:09.80; 2, LU (Brandon Boh, Alex Tucker, Grant Gibson, Jack Garcia), 3:16.58; 3, ASH (Mark Teske, Spencer Klika, Kole Kolinski, Joe Stone), 3:17.90; 4, EDG (Nate Frucht, Sean O’Conner, Alex Moen, Truman teDuits), 3:19.31; 5, PLY (Dawson Smith, Jaxsen Schermacher, Christian Pieper, Ben Schaefers), 3:19.33; 6, ELK (Lucas Koepke, Logan Radlein, Willy Pinnow, Hunter Johnson), 3:20.68; 7, BAR (Josh Hackbarth, Josef Kohlman, Jasper Swallen, Aidan Lohr), 3:22.21; 8, MF (Truitt Landolt, Alton Slane, Tanner Wilson, Alex Slane), 3:23.21.