Craig Boys Swim Team: February 2014

Saturday, February 22

WIAA State Championships

Congratulations to Peter Loftus who qualified for the WIAA State Swim Championships held Saturday, February 22nd at the Natatorium at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
After a great week of practice and with supportive teammates and parents, Jay and Patty, in the bleachers, Peter was ready to give it all he had. He swam his best IM race of the 2013-2014 season taking well over a second off his previous PR with a time of 2:01.64!
At the recent End of Season Swim Awards Banquet, Peter earned the well-deserved Craig Boys Swim Team MVP award. WAY TO GO, PETER! We're so proud of you!

P.S. This marks the fifth consecutive year one of the Loftus brothers has won the Craig Boys Swim Team MVP award. Alex ('11) won the award in both the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons and Jimmy ('13) won the award in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

Saturday, February 15

WIAA Sectionals

CONGRATULATIONS to all of our Sectional swimmers! What an AWESOME meet!

The 200 Medley Really team of Loftus, Wojcek, Bradley and Reese had their best time of the season with a 1:45.58. They earned 8th place on the Sectionals podium.

In a sport that is often defined by hundredths of seconds, our Cougars had some AMAZING personal records at Sectionals. Sophomore Alex Condon set two PRs taking four seconds off his 200 Free and a whopping EIGHT seconds off his 500 Freestyle (that's TWENTY laps by the way). Senior Zach Boutelle left it all in the pool for the final 200 Freestyle of his high school career taking almost FOUR seconds off his previous PR. Sophomores Sullivan Bradley and Alex Goswick set PR's with their times in the 200 Individual Medley taking more than 2 seconds off their times. Senior Erik Tollefsrud turned on the jets for his final 50 yard freestyle and broke the 24 second barrier with a PR 23.90! Junior Bearach McCarthy's finished the season strong with his performance in the 100 yard Freestyle 55.52, his best time of the season. The 200 Free Relay team of Reese, Tollefsrud, Bradley and Loftus earned an 8th place podium spot with their best time of the season as did Peter Loftus with his 57.66 in the Backstroke. Craig's Breaststrokers, Evan Reilly, Zach Boutelle, Colin Wojcek and Grayson Lindau all had great swims. Junior Grayson Lindau saved up a lightning fast 1:07.30 in his 100 Breaststroke and set a PR by over two seconds.

A special congratulations goes to Peter Loftus who qualified for the State Championship Meet! Peter's 2:02.90 in the 200 Individual Medley earned him a fifth place medal at Sectionals and qualified him as the 19th seed at the state meet! Way to go Pete! Let's all get to the NAT on Saturday to cheer for PETE!

Junior Colin Wojcik in the 200 Medley Relay

Sophomore Sullivan Bradley in the 200 Medley Relay

Senior Travis Reese in the 200 Medley Relay

Senior Zach Boutelle in the 100 Freestyle

Sophomore Alex Condon in the 500 Freestyle

The 200 Medley Relay Team of Loftus, Reese, Wojcik and Bradley

Teammates cheering for Peter in the 200 Individual Medley

Peter earns 5th place in the 200 IM and qualifies for the WIAA State Championships

Junior Bearach McCarthy in the 100 Freestyle

Senior Erik Tollefsrud in the 100 Freestyle

200 Freestyle Relay Team of Loftus, Bradley, Reese and Tollefsrud

Junior Grayson Lindau in the 100 Breaststroke

Peter on the podium in the 100 Backstroke

Travis flies in the 400 Freestyle Relay

Saturday, February 8

Big 8 Conference

The Craig team came to the Big 8 Conference meet held for the first time at the new Beloit Memorial pool ready to swim their fastest times of the season.
The 200 Medley Really team of Loftus (Back), Boutelle (Breast), Bradley (Fly) and Reese (Free) had their best time of the season with a 1:48.93.
In the 200 Freestyle, senior Zach Boutelle (2:00.09) and sophomore Alex Condon (2:04.16) both swam personal bests.
Freshman, Drew Carter and Michael Cullen lettered at the Conference meet. Drew lettered in the 100 Freestyle with a PR of 58.20 and PR'd the 100 Backstroke 1:08.16). Michael Cullen earned PRs in both the 200 (2:06.82) and the 100 Freestyle. He lettered in the 100 Free with a time of 57.07.
Sophomore, Alex Goswick earned a PR in the 200 Individual Medley (2:28.63) dropping a second and a half off his previous time. Also in the 200 IM, Peter Loftus earned 6th place in the Conference and set a new PR (2:03.54) by slicing more than THREE seconds off his time.
Three of Craig's sprinters set personal records in the 50 Freestyle: Sophomores, Howard Fritch (27.04) and Cole Chesemore (26.05), Junior Grayson Lindau (24.78).
Flyers Cole Chesemore (1:06.83) and Sullivan Bradley (1:00.83) both swam their best times of the season.
In addition to Michael and Drew's PRs in the 100 Freestyle were PRs set by Trevor Young (1:04.94), Bearach McCarthy (57.13) and Erik Tollefsrud (55.70).
Craig High School's lone 500 yard Freestyle swimmer at Conference, sophomore Alex Condon, was 'in the zone' in his race. Alex managed to keep his pace steady throughout the twenty laps and burned more than SIX seconds off his time (5:29.65).
Craig's A and B 200 Freestyle Relay teams recorded their best times of the season. The B team of Lindau, McCarthy, Goswick and Boutelle had a time of 1:39.49 and the A team of Reese, Tollefsrud, Bradley and Loftus recorded a time of 1:35.53.
Peter Loftus earned a 7th place spot on the Conference podium following his PR (57.74) in the Backstroke.
Grayson Lindau continued dropping time from his Breaststroke setting a new personal record with a time of 1:09.75.
The A and B 400 Freestyle Relay teams beat their seed times. The B team of Carter, Cullen, Wojcik and Reilly swam a 4:09.93 and the A team of McCarthy, Condon, Goswick and Lindau swam a 3:45.90.
With the end-of season taper going into effect, it was awesome to see the swimmers setting personal records left and right. Congratulations and GO COUGARS at the WIAA Sectionals Meet next Saturday!