Homestead's Goetz wins two close races to lead area tankers in NSC meet

Homestead swimmer Gordon Goetz just has a sense of timing.

An innate one at that.

And because of it, the senior freestyler, who only began competing in high school, is a two-time North Shore Conference champ by the thinnest of margins, having won both the 50-yard and 100 freestyles both by just 0.01 of a second in Saturday's meet at Grafton.

"It was stressful to say the least," Goetz said. "I didn't see him (Cedarburg's Chris Higgins the eventual runner-up in both races) either time. That's because coach (Mark Gwidt) teaches us not to take any peeks (into the next lane). Just go and finish hard.

"I just took that extra stroke and reached and rolled. I just couldn't believe it."

Goetz's efforts highlighted a competitive fourth-place showing for the rebuilding and defending league champion Highlanders (267) as Nicolet (363) took second and Whitefish Bay (316) third in the meet that was won by Cedarburg (537).

Gwidt remembers things just a little bit differently in Goetz's races.

"In the 50, he was coming in so fast, he didn't need to take another stroke so he reached and rolled," said Gwidt, "but in the 100, he didn't do that and I said I couldn't look, I knew he got touched out, but he still wound up winning. What can I tell you, the guy is just a racer."

Goetz was clocked in 22.78 seconds in the 50 and 49.79 in the 100.

Gwidt was exceptionally pleased with the effort of his rebuilding squad, as it recorded about 90 percent best times at the meet. "It was a total team effort," he said.

Other noteworthy swims for Homestead included a fourth by the 200 medley relay team of Kyle Slamann, Whelan Callahan, Michael Foulks, and Sam Silver (1:52.85); a third by the 200 free relay team of Goetz, Sylvester Schulteis, John Happ and Drew Miller (1:35.61); a fifth by Schulteis in the 100 backstroke (1:01.27) and a fourth by Andrew Denee in the 100 breast stroke (1:08.3).

Nicolet gets balanced effort

Nicolet coach Dwight Davis was very pleased with the balanced effort that his team displayed in earning its highest place in the NSC meet in about five years.

"The guys did a great job," he said. "We've come a long ways this year. We had a lot of best efforts across the board and that was with some of our top guys still not rested."

He highlighted the personal best scores of runner-up diver Kyle Siverhus (356.41 points) and of his third-place brother Evan Siverhus (354.9) for giving the Knights a great kick-start to the meet. Later, four places in the top 10 of the 100 breast stroke secured third for the team.

Other notable finishes included the following: 200 medley relay: Nick Harris, Matt Bootsma, Roman Hoffmann and Zach Pagel, third (1:50.2); 200 free: Mike Mills, fifth (1:56.13); 50 free: Grant Wilkie, third (23.11); 100 butterfly: Hoffmann, fourth (59.92); and Wilkie, fifth (1:01.37); 500 free: Mills, fifth (5:11.31); 200 free relay: Bootsma, Evan Siverhus, Jamie DeGraff and Wilkie, fourth (1:35.7); 100 breast stroke: Idan Ben-Yitschak, fifth (1:08.75); and 400 free relay: Charley Abram, Mills, DeGraff and Wilkie, fourth (3:32.45).

Mills, Hoffman and DeGraff were also highlighted for their efforts.

Diver helps pace Blue Dukes

Bay got another first place out of precocious freshman diver Joe Kaszubowski (420.66 points) to lead it to its solid spot.

"We didn't do much tapering," Blues Duke coach Jim Davis said, "but we still had some really great swims. This is a very good confidence builder. We started in that direction at the (state) small schools meet (two weeks ago) and now the guys are competing very well."

Other noteworthy finishes for Bay included the following: 200 medley relay: Noah Oldson, Henry Smith, James Colton and Henry Bourgeois, second (1:48.19); 200 free: Bourgeois, second (1:51.75); Smith, fourth (1:52.12); 50 free: Ethan Nikolau, fifth (23.53); 500 free: Smith, second (4:57.5); Oldson, fourth (5:10.73); 100 backstroke: Colton, second (58.64); Oldson, third (1:00.49); and 400 free relay: Nikolau, Smith, Bourgeois and Colton, second (season best 3:25.44).

"We had a lot of solid performances, and I thought our young guys were really able to contribute," Davis said. He was very pleased with the efforts of Bourgeois ("outstanding meet") and Smith as well as that of 10th-place diver Luke Heinrich.

Sectionals next

DIVISION I: Nicolet will host and Homestead will take part. Diving will be at 5:30 p.m. Friday and swimming at 12:45 p.m. Saturday. The winner of each event plus all those whose efforts are among the next 18 best statewide will advance to the WIAA State D1 meet in Madison on Feb. 18.

DIVISION 2: Whitefish Bay will be at Cudahy with diving slated for 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The winner of each event and the next 12 best finishers statewide will advance to the state D2 meet in Madison on Feb. 17.