WIAA Div. 2 state swim ….
WIAA Div. 2 state swim meet
Friday, Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m.
UW Natatorium, Madison
Defending team champion: Madison Edgewood has won the last four team championships. Last year, the Crusaders outscored runner-up McFarland 328.5-209 to win it.
Individual notes: Four individual events and all three relays feature last year’s returning champions. Junior Ella Houwers of Whitewater is the returning champion in the 100 breaststroke, which followed a runner-up finish in 2017. She is considered the favorite to win the event again this season based on her sectional qualifying performance of 1:05.87. Junior Mekenzie Hammer of Monroe-New Glarus looks to repeat as champion in the 200 individual medley, but will need to shave some time off her qualifying time to do so. She enters the meet with the sectional time of 2:14.39. Houwers possesses the top qualifying time at 2:06.63 after finishing third last season. Sophomore Mara Freeman of McFarland is back in the 100 backstroke with the fastest qualifying time of 56.26. Junior Sofia Bormett of Stoughton is the returning champion in the 200 freestyle. She qualifi es this season with the fourth-fastest time in the event at 1:54.93. Freshman Ellery Ottem of River Falls claims the best qualifying time from sectionals, clocking in with a time of 1:52.62. Bormett is also the top returning finisher from last year’s meet in the 100 freestyle, when she was third. Sophomore Malia Francis of Rhinelander has the fastest qualifying time of 57.54 in the 100 butterfly. She’ll need to contend with a number of challengers that have qualifying times less than a second off her pace in addition to junior Emma Clifford of Wausau East, who is the top returning finisher back from last year’s meet after placing fifth. The Edgewood 200 freestyle relay attempts to win for the fifth straight time, while the Crusaders’ 400 freestyle relay seeks its fourth straight crown. The Mc-Farland 200 medley relay will attempt to win its second consecutive championship.
Where Medford sits: Erin Bergman is the sixth seed in the 100-yard backstroke, an event she took sixth in last year and fourth in two years ago. Her qualifying time of 58.88 seconds was just 0.22 seconds away from the fourth seed. She will swim in the second heat. The Raiders’ 200-yard medley relay team of Bergman, Faith Piller, Morgan Ball and Kami Razink is seeded 15th with its qualifying and school-record time of 1:53.66. They will swim in the first heat of Friday’s first race.
