Fearsome foursome fuels Burlington swimmers at conference tournament

SLC SWIMMING

Catholic Central’s Bleser joins Waterford trio for quality performance

By Chris Bennett

Sports Correspondent

And Mike Ramczyk

[email protected]

Catholic Central’s Bailey Bleser won three events and led the Burlington Co-op boys high school swimming team to a third-place finish Feb. 6 in the Southern Lakes Conference Varsity Swim Meet at Whitewater High School.

BC competes Saturday in a WIAA Division 1 sectional meet at Carthage College in Kenosha. Kenosha Bradford is the meet host.

The winner in each event at six Division 1 sectional meets, plus the next 18 fastest times in each event from the six sectionals, advances to the WIAA Division 1 State Swimming & Diving Championships Feb. 20 at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium in Madison.

BC scored a team total of 352 points. Badger Co-op won the conference meet (519) and Elkhorn finished second (396). Competitors earned medals individually through sixth place and through third place for relays.

Bleser won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 8.72 seconds. In winning the 500 freestyle in 5:04.38, he bested Badger Co-op’s Paul Schultz by almost 24 seconds. Schultz finished second (5:28.28).

Bleser swam with Luke Herman, Conner Krattiger and Luke Piccione on BC’s first-place 200 freestyle relay (1:35.28).

Herman won the 200 freestyle (1:51.50) and swam with Bleser, Krattiger and Piccione on BC’s second-place 400 freestyle relay (3:28.44). Krattiger finished second in the 50 freestyle.

In the 400 freestyle relay, the Demons looked like they were going to pull off another victory.

Burlington led after three legs, but Bleser was out-swam by two seconds by Badger’s Andrew Shane on the final leg as the deafening crowd roared inside the packed-in Aquatic Center.

Herman finished third in the 100 butterfly (55.62). Piccione finished fourth in the 100 freestyle (53.89) and Krattiger finished fifth in the 100 butterfly (59.80).

“Each individual this season has shown a lot of great growth,” BC coach Chad Hinze said. “We have a strong senior class this year and those swimmers are going to be missed.

“While those swimmers will not be replaced easily, many of our younger swimmers are ready to step up into those leadership roles to try and continue to build on what our team has been working on.”

In the remaining team standings at the SLC meet Plattevile/Lancaster finished fourth (263) and Whitewater finished fifth (22). Delavan-Darien finished sixth (200) and Jefferson/Cambridge finished seventh (193).