Nat' Kings: South/Memorial wins title
Pool sharks – Members of the Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial swimming and diving team pose with their gold trophy Feb. 20 at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium in Madison. Photo By Russ Pulvermacher/Photographer
Going into last Saturday's WIAA Division 1 state boys swim meet at the UW Natatorium in Madison, the combined team from Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial appeared to be behind the 8-ball in their expected battle for the state championship with Classic 8 Conference rival Arrowhead.
On paper, the Warhawks seemed to have the edge over the Blackshirts, despite the fact that South/CMH was ranked No. 1 in last week's state poll.
Arrowhead, the dominant team at the state meet since 1995, had defeated South/Memorial the last two weeks at the Classic 8/Greater Metro Conference meet and again at the WIAA sectional. The Warhawks also had three more entries than the Blackshirts.
But once the swimming began on Saturday afternoon, South/CMH put all of those so-called disadvantages aside and captured the coveted state championship, the first since the two schools were merged together several years ago.
South/CMH won the crown with 197 points - 14 points ahead of No. 2 ranked Madison Memorial, arguably the most successful high school program team in WIAA history. Greenfield/Greendale was third with 173 points, Arrowhead fourth at 171 and Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights fifth at 166. Just 31 points separated the top five teams, the closest finish in the modern history of the meet.
South/Memorial finished 13th at last year's state meet.
The championship was the first for a Waukesha swim team since 1974. From 1948 to 1974, the Blackshirts captured seven titles in a row in one stretch and 15 overall.
The lead bounced back and forth all day until the Blackshirts took the top spot for the final time after the 500-yard freestyle, with four events to go.
In the 500, junior Max Evans-Nolan took second (4:38.86) and sophomore Noah Potratz placed sixth (4:44.03).
In the events that followed, the co-op clinched victory. The 200 freestyle relay team of freshman Alex Swain, senior Eric Oberst, junior Ryan Finke and junior Daniel Streater took sixth (1:29.07), senior Collin Neitzel was third (59.22) and Oberst 11th (1:01.16) in the 100 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay tem of Swain, Finke, Evans-Nolan and Neitzel placed seventh (3:14.21).
The second place finish by Evans-Nolan turned out to be the highest placement of the day for the new state champs. He was seeded fourth going into the race.
South/Memorial lived up to its seeding. Going into the meet, they had 10 seeds in the top eight spots and left the pool Saturday night with 10 finishes in the top eight.
The 200 medley relay team of Streater, Neitzel, Oberst and Evans-Nolan took eighth with a time of 1:39.09 to open the meet.
Other finishes in the top eight for South/Memorial were a fifth from Finke in the 200 freestyle (1:48.88), Neitzel eighth in the 200 individual medley (1:58.56), a fourth by Oberst (52.17) and a seventh by Streater (52.47) in the 100 butterfly.
Several others scored points (top 16) for the Blackshirts. Evans-Nolan was 10th (1:45.14) in the 200 freestyle, Swain 12th (22.31) and Streater 15th (22.44) in the 50 freestyle, Finke 11th in the 100 butterfly (53.24), Swain 16th in the 100 freestyle (49.49) and Oberst 11th in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.16).
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