Shorewood tankers fall in Woodland meet by thinnest of margins

Shorewood - To understand the degree of intensity and respect that went into the remarkable finish of the Woodland Conference boys swim meet on Saturday that was won by a half-point by Greenfield/Greendale over Shorewood, 453-452.5, one must look at the degree of respect the two coaches have for one another.

"Both teams swam so much better than what the heat sheet projected," Greenfield/Greendale coach Dale Schrank said. "After last year, where the three top teams all finished within 10 points of each other, (without the Shorewood DQ on the last event), I did not think I would ever see a tighter meet on the conference level.

"To have the very next year be decided by half of one point is just unbelievable. Even more impressive than the point spread, is the fact that both teams swam way over their heads in their battle for the title. Both teams scored between 30 to 40 points more than they should have based on previous best times. This is one Conference battle that both teams will remember for a very long time. Our hats sincerely go off to Shorewood on the toughest battle in Woodland Conference history."

Greyhounds coach Rob McCabe concurred.

"Well that's a first," he said. "I've never seen a conference meet be separated by half a point before. We were on the wrong end of the half point today. Before I talk about our team we have to point out that Greenfield/Greendale swam phenomenal and earned the conference title. They were just that much better than us today. In a meet decided by hundredths of seconds it just really pains me to revisit the results. Our guys swam terrific with all three 'A' relays going best times and 21 of the 27 individual entries being season best times.

"We as a team should not be ashamed of our efforts today."

The Greyhounds now turn their attentions to the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet at Cudahy at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

The meet did come down to the 400 free relay. The Panther-Hawks easily secured second by six seconds (3:22.01) over the third-place Greyhound group of Jay Tomasiewicz, Kirill Korolev, Derek Lock and Suhith Bayana (3:28.34).

Further, Shorewood's second group of Andrew Clokey, Devon Brusnahan, Carlo DeSando and Kevin Weisling took sixth (3;38.92). They were three seconds behind a Tosa a team in fifth. A place higher either way and the Greyhounds would have been conference champs.

Greenfield/Greendale did not have a "B" 400 free relay.

But McCabe was not at all unhappy.

"The conference and junior varsity taper kids were swimming out of the minds," he said. "Seriously, those guys were white hot and kept us in the meet." Charlie Hawks, DeSando, Gabriel Rono, Jack Mauer and Andrew Clokey were "Simply unbelievable, truly awesome."

Individual championships were won by Jay Tomasiewicz in the 200 individual medley (personal best 1:59.24) and Kirill Korolev in the 500 free (4:58.43).

Other top six efforts by event included the following: 200 medley: Derek Lock, Henry Sanders, Clokey and Philip Clausen, third (1:46.54); 200 free: Korolev, second (1:51.73); 200 individual medley: Sanders, third (2:09.51); and Clokey, sixth (2:14.44); 50 free: Clausen, sixth (23.69); 100 butterfly: Tomasiewicz, second (56.58); Clausen, third (57.88); Clokey, fourth (58.29); 500 free: Bayana, sixth (5:25.58); 200 free relay: Tomasiewicz, Sanders, Clausen and Korolev, second (1:32.69); 100 backstroke: Lock, sixth (58.77); and 100 breast stroke: Sanders, third (1:04.7).

"I cannot begin to tell you how few hundredths this meet was decided by," McCabe said. "However, if you really look at the results in depth I'm willing to bet we were both on the wrong side of the close races a few times."