State splash, Sauk Prairie finishes fourth

Photo by Dan Larson / Sauk Prairie Eagle

Alison Meng swims the 100-yard butterfly at the WIAA Division 2 state swimming and diving meet Nov. 14. Meng finished sixth in a school-record time of 57.97 seconds.

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By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle

MADISON - It was an accomplishment that needed little description.

So little, in fact, that four of the five members of the Sauk Prairie girls swim team who participated in the WIAA Division 2 state swimming and diving meet Nov. 14 at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium chose to do so in one word.

"Amazing," said Alison Meng, echoing the sentiments of teammates Kelsey Kohlbeck and Megan Cahill, who both used the same word to describe the Eagles fourth-place finish at the meet.

And then there was Abby Diehl.

Diehl, who won the 100-yard freestyle in 52.54 seconds and swam the anchor-leg of the first-place 400 freestyle relay (3:34.15), called it "awesome."

Whether amazing or awesome, though, this much is certain: They're both accurate.

Not only did Sauk Prairie win the 100 freestyle and 400 relay, it also finished second in the 200 medley relay (1:49.04), third in the 100 backstroke (:57.88) and broke five school records en route to its best state finish since 2004, when it also finished fourth.

And it did so by setting an early tone for success. Sauk Prairie's second-place finish in the medley relay came in the meet's first event, and it came in the first of two heats — each event consisted of two eight-lane heats — after the team of Meng, Carly Reinke, Kohlbeck and Diehl entered with the 11th-fastest time.

"To be in the first heat, and knowing that people are thinking, 'Well, you're the first heat, you're not going to be that fast,' and then to come out in second is so great," said Kohlbeck, who swam the butterfly leg of the relay. "We just swam out of our minds."

Indeed they did. Not only did the medley relay turn in a surprising second-place finish, it also broke the previous school-record of 1:50.38 set by Lauren Breunig, Emily Diehl, Breanna Ballweg and Lindsey Kohlbeck at the state meet in 2002. Breunig, Diehl, Ballweg and Kohlbeck won the state title that year, the same year the Eagles won their only state-team title.

And as if a second-place finish and school-record time wasn't enough, the team's time also surpassed the All-America standard time of 1:49.32 set by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association, which essentially means its time is in the top 100 in the nation.

Add it all up, and Diehl knew it was going to be a good meet.

"Starting off that medley relay and getting second, we really could see that we could get top five," she said.

It didn't take long for Diehl to add to the excitement, either. She finished fourth in the meet's next event — the 200 freestyle — by breaking Breunig's school record time of 1:54.45, set at the state meet in 2000, with a time of 1:53.88.

"Lauren Breunig was an amazing swimmer, and to be able to compete as fast as she was is just an awesome feeling," Diehl said.

But as good as Diehl was in the 200 freestyle, she was even better in the 100 freestyle.

She outpaced runner-up Hayley Martin from Monona Grove by five one-hundredths of a second to earn the Eagles first individual championship since Breunig accomplished the feat in the same event, as well as the 200 individual medley, in 2002.

Meng may not have won either of her individual events, but she set school records in both. The sophomore shattered her own record time of 1:00.08 in the backstroke with a third-place time of :57.88. She did the same in the 100 butterfly, bettering Breunig's record time of :59.63 set in 2002 with a sixth-place time of :57.97.

"I just felt great in the water and I think I worked a lot harder this year and I really wanted it more," Meng said of the records. "It feels great … that I could improve (so much) in one year. I realized my potential and my coaches pushed me to be the best that I can be."

They also must have pushed the 400 relay team to be the best. The team of Meng, Megan Cahill Kohlbeck and Diehl earned the Eagles second event championship in school-record time — 6.03 seconds faster than its own record time set at the sectional meet Nov. 8 when it qualified with the sixth-fastest time.

Kohlbeck finished 11th in the butterfly (1:00) and 12th in the 200 individual medley (2:16.20) — an event she didn't qualify for last year after missing the state cut-off by one spot — to round out the Eagles' scoring.

And it was scoring that allowed the Eagles to easily surpass their preseason goal of a top-10 finish after coming in 11th last year.

"Our team has just worked so hard … and we are so close to each other it's unbelievable," Meng said. "We just pushed each other and we're always their for each other, so I think that's the No. 1 thing that got us here.

"It's just an amazing feeling."

Amazing — or awesome — indeed.

Team scores: DeForest 236.5, Grafton 180, Waukesha Catholic Memorial 156, Sauk Prairie 149, Madison Edgewood 139, Shorewood 134, Monona Grove 133, Whitefish Bay 120.5, Baraboo 113, Elkhorn 112, Milton 106, McFarland 97.5, Plymouth 91, Sturgeon Bay-Sevastopol 89.5, Whitnall 89, Brookfield Academy 47, New Berlin West 42, Berlin-Green Lake 40, Port Washington 30, Delavan-Darien 29, Colby-Abbotsford 29, New Berlin Eisenhower 22, Shawano 20, River Valley 20, Milwaukee Lutheran 17, New London 17, Kiel-Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah 13, Menomonie 13, Fort Atkinson 10, Greendale 7, Lakeland 7, Ladysmith-Bruce Flambeau 5, Pewaukee 5, Rice Lake 3.

(Top 2 finishers and Sauk Prairie finishers listed in all events)

Diving: 1, Van de Boom, Port Washington, 384.45; 2, Capcick, Milwaukee Lutheran, 383.1

200-yard medley relay: 1, Waukesha Catholic Memorial, 1:48.58; 2, Sauk Prairie (Alison Meng, Carly Reinke, Kelsey Kohlbeck, Abby Diehl), 1:49.04. 200 freestyle: 1, Hojan-Clark, Brookfield Academy, 1:50.27; 2, Sellinger, Shorewood, 1:50.87; 4, Abby Diehl, Sauk Prairie, 1:53.88. 200 individual medley: 1, Chamberlain, Shorewood, 2:03.95; 2, Keeling, Baraboo, 2:08.86; 12, Kelsey Kohlbeck, Sauk Prairie, 2:16.20. 50 freestyle: 1, Martin, Monona Grove, :24.19; 2, Smith, Whitefish Bay, :24.35. 100 butterfly: 1, Sellinger, Shorewood, :56.91; 2, Criter, Plymouth, :57.30; 6, Alison Meng, Sauk Prairie, :57.97; 11, Kelsey Kohlbeck, Sauk Prairie, 1:00.00. 100 freestyle: 1, Abby Diehl, Sauk Prairie, :52.54; 2, Martin, Monona Grove, :52.59. 500 freestyle: 1, Hojan-Clark, Brookfield Academy, 4:54.18; 2, Chamberlain, Shorewood, 5:03.26. 200 freestyle relay: 1, Monona Grove, 1:38.95; 2, Madison Edgewood, 1:39.83. 100 backstroke: 1, Smits, Berlin-Green Lake, :55.83; 2, Nennig, Grafton, :56.88; 3, Alison Meng, Sauk Prairie, :57.88. 100 breaststroke: 1, Criter, Plymouth, 1:03.31; 2, Haney, Milton, 1:03.74. 400 freestyle relay: 1, Sauk Prairie (Alison Meng, Megan Cahill, Kelsey Kohlbeck, Abby Diehl), 3:34.15; 2, Shorewood, 3:35.42.

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