Clare Martell fell just a few tenths of a second from her goal at the WIAA Division 1 state swimming championships Saturday in Madison.
The Bonduel sophomore finished the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute, 6.29 seconds, taking seventh in the event, just one spot from the podium.
“She swam a great race,” Shawano/Bonduel coach Sharon Hanson said. “Her time was very close to what she had at sectionals. … Just right there.”
The sixth-place finisher in the event, Homestead’s Alexandria Petersen, finished in 1:06.10, the same time Martell swam at last week’s sectional in Neenah.
“To get that 1:06.10, (Martell) had to take off more than a second. That’s something she’s worked on all season,” Hanson said. “It was a very good race. She finished seventh and just missed the podium, which was her goal. But, there’s always next year. She’s just a sophomore.”
Arrowhead’s Lindsay Adamski won the event in 1:01.95.
Ali Hanson, a Shawano junior and the coach’s daughter, finished the 50 freestyle in 24.45, taking 14th place. In the 100 freestyle, she finished 19th with a time of 54.00.
Ali Hanson started the week with the flu, and it could have been a factor Saturday.
“She’d been swimming faster than that pretty much all season,” Sharon Hanson said. “That was kind of tough. She did her best; the girls all did their best.”
Arrowhead’s Mary Warren won the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.29. In the 100 freestyle, Waukesha South/Mukwonago’s Abby Jagdfeld won in 49.86.
The Shawano/Bonduel 200 medley relay team of Hanson, Martell, Malory Soper and Ailysh Tetting finished 22nd with a time of 1:54.48. Arrowhead finished first with a time of 1:44.23.
“They added a little bit of time, just a little bit from each person,” Hanson said. “They did good. … Their goal was to get a relay team to state and they did that. There was a lot of doubt about if we could pull that off without Mackenzie Buss here. They got them there.”
Buss, a two-time state champion, graduated in the spring.
The state race was the last for Soper, a Shawano senior, but the coach is confident about the team’s prospects for next season.
“We have a good group of girls to work with,” she said. “We’re losing Malory, as far as our state swimmers, but we have lots of new people coming in that were here this year and worked really hard. I think they will fill those positions and next year will be good.”
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