Passamani on the move
CEDARBURG – New Berlin Eisenhower’s Bella Passamani won the 500yard freestyle at the Bulldog Invitational on Saturday and now the senior is ready to really get to work.
With the team off the upcoming week from competition, the defending Division 2 state champion in the 100 butterfly plans to hash out her options for college and announce where she plans to compete by the end of the week.
UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay and Oakland (Mich.) are on the short list. During the past three weeks each has gotten some one-on-one time with the Lions standout during a campus visit.
Where are you going to school next year? It’s a question everyone seems to ask her these days. Passamani is ready to give people an answer.
“Overall I would describe it as very fun,” she said of weighing her options. “It’s exciting to be wanted by so many different schools. I think they all offer such great things. … I just have to find the right one for me.”
Passamani’s ability to compete at a high level in the butterfly as well as the middle to longer sprints make her an appealing prospect at the Division I level.
At the high school level, it has made her the anchor of an Eisenhower squad that is ranked fifth in Division 2 by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association. Saturday she also took second in the 200 free in 1 minute 57.41 seconds and was part of 200 medley and 400 free relays that took second with times of 1:51.62 and 3:44.56.
In each case Passamani or the team finished behind Division 1 Cedarburg, or in the case of the 200 free, a swimmer from Benilde St. Margaret’s of Minnesota.
None of those times were season bests, but they were solid mid-season efforts.
“I love coming to this meet. This is one of my favorite meets," Passamani said. "Since we’re such a small D2 team, we don’t normally get to come to these bigger invites. … It was good to get some fresh competition, D1 competition that you normally don’t get to see.”
Eisenhower finished third at the meet behind host Cedarburg and Waukesha North/Kettle Moraine, a couple of Division 1 schools. The Lions, however, also got a victory from sophomore Maddie Guman in the 100 backstroke, making them the only team besides Cedarburg with more than one victory.
In the big picture of the season, Eisenhower hopes to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish.
“We have all of our girls coming back, which is really good, and we added a freshman to our squad who is really, really good, so I’m looking for higher than fourth this year,” Eisenhower coach Alyssa Bauer said. “I don’t know how high we can get, but we have a good, little top squad that I think will do well at state this year.”