2024 Wisconsin Boys’ High School Swimming & Diving Championships – Division 1
- February 17, 2024
- Waukesha South High School Natatorium, Waukesha, Wisconsin
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Timed Finals
- Full Meet Results
The boys from Middleton High School outside of Madison grabbed their second consecutive team title, and third overall, last weekend in Waukesha, scoring 273 points.
This year’s meet was the 100th boys’ high school swimming & diving championship in Wisconsin.
While those are a few less points than they scored last season (288), their 95-point margin over runners-up Madison Memorial is bigger than last season (77).
Team Scores – Top 10
- Middleton – 273
- Madison Memorial – 178
- Arrowhead – 177
- Brookfield Central/East Co-op – 138
- DC Everest – 136.5
- Sun Prairie East – 132
- Hudson – 126
- Franklin – 120
- Madison West – 119
- West Bend West/East Co-Op – 99
Wisconsin high school swimming has two divisions. Division 1 is the state’s bigger high schools, plus some smaller schools that have combined into large co-ops.
Middleton roared to a win thanks to one individual event title and two relays, including a statement-making Meet Record in the 200 medley relay to open the festivities.
The relay of Max Carter (back – 23.35), Sam Wolf (breast – 24.16), Caden van Buren (fly – 21.53) and Vitense Cowan (free – 21.57) combined for a 1:30.61. That won the race by a two second margin and broke Madison West’s State Record that was set in 2019.
They had the fastest split on each leg of that relay aside from the anchor leg, where DC Everest senior and South Dakota commit David Mayer split 20.01.
The first three legs of that winning Middleton relay were all sophomores, with only the anchor Cowan graduating, so they should be back for more next year. That includes Sam Wolf, who also won an individual event title for Middleton.
First he won the 200 IM in 1:47.97, more than three seconds ahead of Franklin’s Jack Paull (1:51.32). There was only one senior in the top 12 of that race, again indicative of the generally young nature of this year’s meet. Wolf was 3rd last year in 1:48.22 at a veteran-heavy meet that had six seniors in the top eight.
Wolf was 2nd in the 100 free in 44.80 behind Mayer (44.29). That swim for Mayer is faster than any USD swimmers have been this season, showing the big impact he’ll have when he arrives on campus in the fall.
He also won the individual 50 free in 20.34, a flat-start best for him.
While Wolf had the fastest breaststroke split on the 200 medley relay, he didn’t swim the 100 breaststroke individually. There he would have run into Madison West’s Abram Mueller, the defending champion and State Record holder.
Mueller won that event again this year in 53.77, about half-a-second off his winning time of 53.20 from last season.
He also won the 100 fly in 48.59 to defend that title as well. This swim was a new lifetime best, shaving .12 seconds off the time he did at last year’s State meet.
Mueller, a senior, is committed to swim at Stanford next season.
Wolf finished his meet by swimming the anchor leg of Middleton’s winning 400 free relay. Again with three sophomores, the relay included Jackson Esteves (47.21), Ben Cutler Heiderscheit (46.71), Max Carter (45.93), and Wolf (44.65).
Wolf was one of two 44-second splits on that closing relay along with Hudson senior Andrew Hanson, who led them off in 44.66.
Individually, Hanson won the 200 free in 1:36.93, which crushed his best time by 1.6 seconds.
In spite of his progress there, Hanson was upset later in the meet in the 500 free by Muskego junior Carter Jewell. Hanson entered the meet as the defending champion and Meet Record holder, but finished 2nd behind Jewell in 4:28.54 – about four seconds off his time from last year.
Jewell, meanwhile, won in 4:25.75, which smashed his personal best coming into the meet by six seconds (he was 4:31.88 a week earlier at Sectionals). In total, Jewell dropped 19 seconds in the 20223-2024 season, putting the uncommitted junior on to a lot of recruiting radars.
While Middleton ran away with the state title, for the second-straight season, Arrowhead and Madison Memorial battled down to the wire for the runner-up spot. Last year, Arrowhead took 2nd place, but this year Madison Memorial took those honors – by 1 point.
Even though Arrowhead was 2nd in the closing 400 free relay, one spot ahead of Madison West, but they needed to be two spots better to overtake for 2nd place.
Other Event Winners
- The Co-op from Brookfield Central and East High Schools won the 200 free relay in 1:25.32 – another winning relay with only one senior. That senior was the leadoff Tom Bergin (21.19). He was followed by Caleb Smith (21.59), Luke Thomas (22.11), and freshman anchor Logan Loppnow. Loppnow may be in his first season of high school swimming, but he didn’t show any nerves in that crucial anchor slot – he split 20.43 to run-down and overcome an eight-tenths deficit to keep Middleton from a relay sweep. Bergin and Loppnow attend Central, while Smith and Thomas attend East.
- Mayer was again the best split of the field in the 200 free relay, anchoring DC Everest in 20.09 for 3rd place.
- Franklin senior Mason Bruhn won the boys’ 100 back in 49.08, using a huge back-half swim to overcome Middleton sophomore Carter (49.25). That’s a new lifetime best for the Denver commit Bruhn, who was 49.45 to finish in 3rd place last season.
- junior Brady Huettl from the Waukesha South/Catholic Memorial co-op won 1-meter diving after finishing 3rd last season. He cracked 500 points, finishing with a score of 501.90.
