From The WISCA Coaches Blog

Swimmers worth knowing about: Stories behind the headlines

Feb 15 2012

It's always natural, as the state meets approach, to focus on the team race, the individual stars, and the potential records to be set. But as always, the state meet is full of a bunch of good stories behind the headlines. Here are a few:

Roll Tide

The D1 sectional meet at Middleton is usually one of the fastest and deepest in the state, and this year proved no exception. As the meet got underway, it was no surprise to see the usual suspects swimming well - Madison Memorial, Madison West, Middleton, Beloit Memorial.

Wait a minute. Beloit Memorial? The same Beloit Memorial that hasn't sent anyone to the state meet in seven years? Yep, that's the one.

Sectional meets usually offer up a few surprises, but perhaps none more so this year than the performance of the Purple Tide at the Middleton sectional, who created a conversational stir at the meet. The Tide qualified their medley relay to state after cutting 6+ seconds at sectionals. Going into sectionals, Beloit's medley was seeded 30^th overall in the state - thus needing a decent leap to make it to state. They swam so well they will swim at state as the 15^th overall seed.

And it didn't stop there. Junior Christian Daniels cut roughly 10 seconds combined off of his seed times in his two events - the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke - to qualify for state in both events. Daniels and the medley relay will be Beloit's first participants in the state meet since 2005. Joining Daniels, who swims backstroke on the medley, will be sophomore Caleb Schober and seniors Alec Shu and Cody Schober.

About the only one not surprised by the results was veteran Beloit coach Richard Vogel, he of the booming voice and energetic pacing up and down the lanes, encouraging his swimmers.

"I don't want to sound cocky, but every year we go into sectionals with the expectation of swimming very well," he said. "It's just that this year we have finally caught back up with the rest of the state. We always have great time drops, but this year our kids have matured and now we are swimming times that get us to state."

Vogel was quick to point out the success of the entire team at Saturday's sectional meet, noting that the team's 200 free relay came within .03 seconds of getting to the state meet, and sophomore breaststroker Schober also just missed joining Daniels at state. Every other swimmer on the team cut time at the meet, with some registering lifetime bests.

Swimming actually has a storied history at Beloit; the team won state titles in 1975 and 1976 when the sport was only one division in Wisconsin. But few swimmers on the team participate year-round in the sport through clubs. So Vogel, assistant coach Kim Waite (who heads the girls program at Beloit) and a former swimmer, Andre DeKok, have established a thriving K-12 program at the district to encourage kids to think about swimming as a sport once they get to high school. It's now 260 students strong, and Vogel said Saturday's strong showing at sectionals is a direct result of the hard work and enthusiasm of his swimmers not just in high school, but in their formative years. (You can follow the exploits of Beloit swimming at what is surely one of the best high school swim team blogs anywhere: http://www.swimminginbeloitwi.blogspot.com/)

As for the pre-meet magic that Vogel must have worked prior to Saturday's sectionals? "I didn't tell them anything different than any other big meet," he said.  "I told them, after our team breakfast and mental rehearsal, that they were ready - because they had prepared well, and that it was Beloit's turn to shine."