Marlins hope to make wave at season's finale
Sectional winner Rodenkirk leads talented New Berlin contingent to Madison
New Berlin — The bar was raised a year ago for the New Berlin co-op swim team.
The Marlins finished in the top 10 in six events, including a pair of titles by now-graduated Byron Butler en route to a sixth-place finish at the WIAA Division 1 State Meet.
So, with expectations sky-high, what will this year's meet hold when the Marlins compete at 3 p.m. Saturday at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium in Madison?
"There will be some nerves. To be nervous means you're ready," senior Alex Rodenkirk said. "You'll feel it in a way, but as soon as you hit the water, it all goes away and you do what you have to do."
Expectations might be highest for Rodenkirk. He was the only Marlin to win at the tough Waukesha South Sectional on Saturday. He won his two individual events, claiming first in the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 42.91 seconds and the 100 free in 46.74, lowering the school record of 47.15 set by Ryan Zahorik in 1993.
He also led off the sixth-place 200 free relay that included Jared Moranski, Josh Solie and Matt Schumacher with a school record-setting time of 21.62 in the 50 free, erasing Zahorik's mark of 21.66 set in 1995. Rodenkirk also helped Chris Kaminski, Schumacher and Jasen Johnson take third in the 400 free. That unit lowered its school record set last week at the Woodland Conference Meet to 3:15.24 on Saturday.
"The competition definitely was very fast, especially in my events," Rodenkirk said. "That pool is unbelievably nice. It's basically like a mini state (meet), it just doesn't have the amount of swimmers that the state meet has. But I bet times were as fast or faster than they will be as state."
Rodenkirk owns the second-fastest seed times in both free events, second only to Madison Memorial's Michael Drives' 1:41.61 in the 200 and Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights' Matt Friede's 46.73 in the 100. Rodenkirk placed sixth in the 100 free and seventh in the 200 at state as a junior.
"I know Mike Drives and Matt Friede are really fast swimmers, but I'm going in hoping to touch them out to take the title," Rodenkirk said.
The 400 free relay owns the sixth-fastest sectional time in the state field and finished seventh a year ago. The 200 free relay finished sixth at the sectional and is seeded 12th after taking 12th at state last year.
Rodenkirk will have lots of company at the state meet.
Johnson set the fourth school record by lowering his own best in the 100 breaststroke from 1:01.06 to 1:00.59 which placed him fourth at the sectional and is the eighth-fastest seed time. Johnson also qualified in the 100 butterfly with a fifth-place time of 53.02 and teamed with Kaminski, Moranski and Solie for fourth in the 200 medley relay in 1:40.90.
Schumacher will swim both the 100 backstroke (55.46) and 100 free (49.35) at state after taking sixth and seventh in those events, respectively, Saturday. Solie was seventh in the 50 free with a state-qualifying mark of 22.47.
"We hope that Alex can win his two events. That's certainly the target at this point for him," New Berlin coach Paul Lutzke said. "We'd like to see the relays score as high as they can and get up on the podium. Jason certainly wants to do that in his two events. They all want to get up on that podium. I think we'll have a good week of practice and a lot of focus and intensity will be toward doing that."
All six of the Marlins state representatives were at the meet a year ago.
"There's no newbies going in this year," Lutzke said. "It's all veterans that qualified last year. They certainly know what to expect and how things are going to go down, the whole trip and everything. It should be routine to them."
The Marlins placed fifth of 11 teams at the state's fastest sectional with 236.5 points. Arrowhead won with 351, followed by Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial's 328, Brookfield Central/East's 247 and Menomonee Falls/Germantown/Hamilton's 245.
"Any time you break school records, you can't ask for more than that, I guess," Lutzke said. "We were very happy with the times we pushed out Saturday. Sometimes we weren't happy with the place we had with them, but nevertheless, we were happy with the times we got."
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