Feb. 23, 2012

Results

Brown Deer, Wis. - Four swimmers finished in the top-five in the 200 IM and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee showed its depth all day long in the second day of events at the Horizon League Championships at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center Thursday.

With eight events in the books, Milwaukee has amassed an impressive lead. The Panthers stand in first with 341 points, with UIC in second at 289.5 and Cleveland State in third with 286.5. Wright State (179), Green Bay (127) and Valparaiso (86) round out the scoring.

"So far, we're pretty happy with how things are going," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. "We didn't win any events but we're up by quite a bit after two days and that's what Milwaukee swimming is all about. We don't win a lot of events but we win a lot of championships and that's what we're here to do."

Milwaukee flexed its muscle in the 200 IM, as four swimmers finished in the top-five to dominate the podium. Senior Sam Keele broke the school record in prelims with a time of 1:49.52 and was just shy of shaving off more time in the finals to finish runner-up.

Right behind Keele were juniors David Dvorak (1:51.69) in third and Caleb Sandvold (1:51.82) in fourth, while senior Nathan Rahe (1:52.83) came in fifth to round out the top-five.

UWM also placed three swimmers in the finals of the 500 freestyle, more than any other school at the meet. Junior Mike Brady took third in 4:32.39, knocking over six seconds off his season-best time. Freshman Kenny Stelpflug came in sixth at 4:33.52 and junior Brian Verink was eighth with a season-best time of 4:38.56.

"Mike Brady didn't even swim the 500 free until this year and for him to drop a ton of time on his lifetime-best is just awesome," Clements said. "That's just a prime example of what we're all about. We have so many swimmers that can swim so many events and are multi-event athletes that we can have guys like Mike step up big in events that aren't their specialty."

In the day's final event, Milwaukee just missed a league championship, finishing runners-up by less than half a second in the 400 medley relay. Seniors Kyle Trelka, Brady Huemann, Sky Boggio and junior Nathan Welchlin combined to post a season-best time of 3:18.68.

The Panthers also had a strong showing the 50 freestyle, as Welchlin took fifth in 20.51 seconds and Trelka finished eighth at 20.72. Junior Sam Niesen won the consolation heat, touching the wall at 20.98 and junior Mike Schalla finished consolation runner-up in 21.10. All four times were season-bests.

Day three of action kicks off Friday with preliminaries starting at 10:30 a.m. and finals, which can be seen live on the Horizon League Network, set to get underway at 6:30 p.m.