Shorewood senior tastes victory
MADISON – When you put in as much work as Evan Szablewski, you deserve a finish like this.
The Shorewood senior has spent much of his high school career coming close to a championship. The past two years that meant taking second to Monona Grove’s Ben McDade as the 2018 graduate swam some of the fastest 500-yard freestyle times in state history.
And early Friday evening that meant scoring another second-place finish, this time in the 200 freestyle.
When Szablewski got another crack at the 500, however, there was no denying him.
Leading from start to finish, he captured his state title with a time of 4 minutes 39.48 seconds at the WIAA Division 2 state meet at UW-Natatorium.
“I’m glad all my hard work has paid off and I’m finally able to win at a state meet,” he said. “I’ve never won in club or high school at a state-level competition, so I’m glad it happened this year.”
Szablewski’s time was the fastest of his three state-meet appearances. He finished in 4:41.01 last season, 4:44.61 as a sophomore and 4:54.80 as a freshman when he finished fourth.
Szablewski’s performance highlighted a meet in which the area also got a second-place finish from Cedarburg senior Garrett Gonwa in diving (445.95) and Elkhorn led the charge for the area from a team standpoint by tying for third with Rhinelander.
Elkhorn's top finish came in the 400 free relay where the team of juniors Lucas Koepke, Danny Bush, Willy Pinnow and Hunter Johnson took second in 3:14.75.
The Elks had two athletes win two individual medals: Pinnow took fifth in the 200 and 500 free and Koepke finished fourth in the 100 free and fifth in the 50 free.
Elkhorn also received third-place finishes from Johnson in the 100 fly (52.61) and the 200 free relay of Koepke, senior Derek Gauger, Bush and Pinnow (1:29.98).
As for Szablewski, he is Shorewood’s first state champion since Michael Perry won the 100 butterfly in 2015 and the first 500 champion since Brandon Kipp won the 2002 title in Division 2.
Friday he showed some versatility also by swimming the butterfly leg of the Greyhounds 200 medley relay that took 12th and the anchor leg of the team’s 400 relay that took 3:23.61.
“To have this cap off his career was a big deal for him,” Shorewood coach Cassie Rodriguez said. “What really meant a lot to him was last week at our sectional meet he broke our school record in the 500 and the pool record at Whitefish Bay, and that was something he’s been chasing since he started swimming.”
Szablewski, who will compete for Tufts in college, couldn’t beat that record of 4:38.29 Friday, but he did join the lengthy list of state champions from the school.
“I couldn’t have thought of a better finish. We’ll maybe if I went a better time, but I still won and it’s the greatest feeling,” he said. “The four years of high school I’ve been training. I kind of thought this is the meet I’ve been training for my entire career and I’m so glad I could finish on top of it.”