Published: Feb. 18, 2014
East junior Smale qualifies for state in 2 events
Suns advance 2 divers
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
CEDARBURG — West Bend East’s Mike Smale felt confident about
his time in the 200-yard individual medley during Saturday’s WIAA Cedarburg
Sectional.
Then he saw what place he finished: seventh.
“Placing seventh at the sectional puts doubts in your mind,”
Smale said.
When the cut times were announced Saturday night, Smale was
relieved.
“I’m extremely excited,” he said. “This year, especially at
the West Bend invite, the IM has been tough. There’s been doubts in the IM.”
Smale swam the 200 IM in 2:01.76 and the 100 breaststroke in
1:00.95, breaking his school record, to advance to the state championship meet
Saturday in Madison.
Also advancing to state for East are divers Owen Gluck and
Dakota Skenandore.
“That’s really great,” East coach Jim Sachse said. “I’ve had
it in the past where we’ve had three divers make it to state. To get to two
very quality divers there, it’s going to be very exciting. Hopefully they can
make it to the top 16.”
Arrowhead won the sectional with 371 points, ending Cedarburg’s
three-year reign of the sectional. Cedarburg scored 306 points.
Menomonee Falls/Germantown/ Hamilton co-op was sixth in the
12-team sectional with 215 points.
East finished eighth with 175. Hartford Union was ninth with
66 and West Bend West was 10th with 44.
“They swam excellent,” Sachse said. “In every individual
event, they had their best times. That’s really great.”
Hartford and West didn’t advance anyone to state.
At the beginning of the season, however, Orioles coach
Kristen Jenkyns didn’t know what to expect as it was her first year with the
team.
“I’m thrilled,” she said. “I thought the guys did really
good. A lot of best times, which is hard to pull off.”
“We tapered fully for conference,” she added. “For them to
be able to hang on for another week and almost get best times, I was really
proud of them.”
East had hoped to get a relay or two to state. Its 200
medley and 200 free relays missed the cut by about 1.5 seconds.
“I had a feeling that they wouldn’t make it,” Sachse said.
“We knew we were going to be close. After the times came out, they weren’t
down. They knew they had done a really good job.”
In the 200 IM, the top eight qualified for state, which is unusual.
“The whole sectional is really fast,” Smale said. “It’s
surprising with how fast the sectional is getting.”
He wasn’t 100 percent confident with his IM because he
thought his backstroke split was off.
“Every time I swim it, it seems like the splits are lagging
in the backstroke,” Smale said. “The backstroke was tough and by the very end
of the race, I felt really tight and sore. Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m
catching the water really well.”
He made up for it enough in the other three splits.
“I thought it was a pretty good time,” Smale said of his IM.
“I was really happy with it.”
As for the breaststroke, Smale hopes to break one minute
after he took third Saturday.
Gluck will make his third appearance at state diving, while
it will be Skenandore’s first trip to state.
“He feels really good on the board,” Sachse said of
Skenandore. “I think another year of experience has helped.”
The Suns were disappointed they couldn’t get a relay to
state. However, they weren’t discouraged.
“I’m not disappointed because they swam so well,” Sachse
said. “It would’ve been a plus to get a relay or two to state.
“It’s something for the juniors and sophomores can
concentrate on for next year.”
John Seiler of the Menomonee Falls/Germantown/ Hamilton
co-op won the 100 butterfly (51.31).
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