Sports Wrapups: Feb. 21

Shorewood boys swim

Behind two state medal-winning efforts from Jay Tomasiewicz, and a great effort by fellow senior Henry Sanders, the Greyhounds finished a sound 10th in the WIAA State Division 2 Swim Meet on Friday.

"The two seniors, Tomasiewicz and Sanders, sure did their best to finish their careers on ultra high notes," Greyhounds coach Rob McCabe said. "Both Jay and Henry had career days going best times in all of their races."

Shorewood scored 106 points for its spot while McFarland defended its title in the 31-school field with 325 points.

Tomasiewicz was fourth in the 200 IM with a six-second personal best of 1:56.22 and then he came back to earn third in the 100 butterfly with a school record of 53.49, breaking a 10-year old mark in the process.

Another state place-winning effort was a fifth from the 200 medley relay team of Tomasiewicz, Sanders, Philip Clausen and Kirill Korolev (season best 1:41.79).

Also competing at state for the Greyhounds were the following: 200 freestyle: Korolev, 12th (1:51.56); 200 individual medley: Sanders, 11th (personal best 2:04.61); 100 butterfly: Clausen, 14th (57.32); 500 free: Korolev, 10th (4:58.75); 100 breast stroke: Sanders, seventh (personal best and heat winner 1:02.8); and 400 free relay: Tomasiewicz, Clausen, Suhith Bayana and Korolev, 10th (season best 3:23.25).

McCabe came back to the efforts of Tomasiewicz and Sanders.

"Those two seniors had as good of meets as anyone I've ever coached before at the state meet," he said.

"In all I think we had a great season and exceeded many of the expectations our competitors and rivals placed upon us," McCabe said. "Looking ahead to next year, I think the same can be reached. Hopefully many of the guys swim outside of the season and start the year with a better fitness level."

Brown Deer girls basketball

The Falcons began the week with a modest but not insubstantial goal for themselves, a three-game winning streak, with road victories over St. Francis and St. Thomas More.

Coach Steve Reinhardt was especially impressed with the 42-41 win over St. Francis on Friday.

"Considering it was on the road and that we were down five going into the last period, we really stuck our nose in there," he said. "I think at the beginning of the year, we may have lost that game by 10 or 15 points. It speaks a lot to the caliber of the kids and speaks a lot about their growth. They're so much better than they were at the beginning of the season."

The Falcons, who have only seven players currently on their roster, improved to 6-10 in the Woodland and 9-11 overall with the two victories. They host New Berlin West on Friday.

In the win over St. Francis, Valerie Whiyee had hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Falcons up one, and then later Jasalyn Lee (15 points) scored to put Brown Deer up two. The Mariners then made one of two free throws with 11 seconds to go to cut the deficit to one. Brown Deer missed the front end of a bonus, but the Mariners last-second shot was off the mark.

Imani Stingley and Allison Laurent had eight points apiece.

In the 51-41 victory over St. Thomas More on Feb. 14, Stingley had 12 points while Sabrina Wimmer had 11 and Lee 10.

"The kids are just growing and growing," Reinhardt said. "We're really laying a good foundation for the future."

Homestead boys swim

Gordon Goetz began swimming in high school only because he was rehabbing a bad hip injury he suffered in youth football.

Goetz finished his fine career with a pair of career bests in the WIAA State Division 1 meet in Madison on Saturday.

He was seventh in the 50-yard freestyle, just 0.09 out of a state medal with a sizzling 21.77 time and then was eighth in the 100 free with a very fast 47.87 time. He won his heat of the 100 in earning his spot.

"Gordie has come such a long ways," Highlanders coach Mark Gwidt said. "It took him a long time to rehab that hip (four years ago) and so what a great way for him to go out. He really put a cherry on his sundae."

With those two finishes, Homestead finished in a tie for 18th in the Division 1 field with 23 points as Madison Memorial defended its title with 326.

"He (Goetz) was so close to getting on the podium, but we were able to bring a bunch of guys up there to cheer him on and he felt good about that," Gwidt said. "There were a lot of sophomores and juniors in that group and Gordie was able to show them what it took to get there and succeed."

Goetz was the lead senior of a small class of seniors on a team of about 45 total athletes.

Brown Deer/USM boys swim

Senior Stephen Grambow closed out his career on a high note, as the Falcons finished 21st in the WIAA State Division 2 meet in Madison on Friday.

"Stephen had a couple of really nice swims," veteran coach Bob Van Lieshout said. "Though we didn't quite get what we wanted, I'm not disappointed with any of the swims or where we ended up."

Grambow turned in a best time of 56.62 seconds in taking 12th in the 100 backstroke while Billy Wong missed out on a school record in the 100 breast stroke, but still turned in a ninth-place showing of 1:03.14.

Wong and Grambow then joined Adam Brostowicz and Berj Balzonyian in taking 14th in the 400 free relay (3:28.9).

The finishes helped the Falcons score 20 points as McFarland defended its title.

"It was still a good season," Van Lieshout said. "Looking back at the start of the season, I knew our small numbers would hurt us but we had quality. The problem is, is that about half the team graduates. These were good kids. They really made progress."

Graduates include Grambow, Matt Myszewski, Thomas Simms-Manske, Zach Steinbrenner, Steven Wade and Brostowicz.

Nicolet boys swim

Evan Siverhus earned 14th place for the Knights in diving in the WIAA State Division 1 meet in Madison on Saturday, while his brother, Kyle, was 17th.

"It wound up a pretty interesting competition," Knights coach Dwight Davis said. "It would have been nice for Kyle to have made the final (round) cuts. The divers had to be very consistent all the way through to do well."

Evan finished with a total of 328.5 points while Kyle had a score of 228.45.

The three points the Knights earned gave them a 36th place finish in the D1 field.

Overall, Davis was encouraged by the competitive season the Knights had. They finished with 36 total swimmers, including key seniors Matt Bootsma, Roman Hoffmann and Grant Wilkie.

"We're a little light on underclassmen," Davis said. "Hopefully, we'll get enough guys into the off-season training to give us a good start for next year."

Davis is also encouraged by his two-year old Bananas youth club team that started out with six participants and now is up to around 50.

"Next fall, we're hoping for about 75," he said.

- Steven L. Tietz