ONALASKA — Saturdays like the one Bethany Hale, Lydia Foster, Elin Gilles and Onnalee Wolff just experienced and the even bigger one that awaits them didn’t seem realistic when they first gathered for practice in the middle of August.
There was reason to be excited about the upcoming swim season and a different feel with Abi Schauske moving up to head coach after being an assistant last season for a co-op of competitors from Holmen, Onalaska, Aquinas and G-E-T.
But success is measured differently from program to program, and the truth was this team hadn’t been represented at the WIAA state meet in 10 years.
As smaller goals were reached, larger ones emerged. The co-op was posting dual victories and building confidence every step of the way.
So when Hale, Foster, Gilles and Wolff had a huge collective performance at the Division 1 Hudson Sectional and gave their team three victories, the feeling was more excitement than shock.
Suddenly, state wasn’t just a realistic goal but reality itself.
“It wasn’t unexpected, but how it happened was a little unexpected,” Schauske said. “You never know, especially as a first-year coach, how they will be going into a rested meet (like the sectional).
“We had good expectations, but for Bethany to go out and win both of her events after being seeded first in one and second in the other was a morale booster for the whole team.”
Hale, an Aquinas senior, won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 55.93 seconds and the 500 freestyle in 5:16.9 for automatic spots in those races this Saturday afternoon at Waukesha South.
And after tinkering with the lineup for most of the season, Hale, Foster, Gilles and Wolff won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:39.92 after entering with the third seed to give the co-op a group of qualifiers to break that 10-year drought.
“To bring a relay with some of my closest friends on the team was so exciting,” Hale said. “I don’t have to go alone. We can be a team.”
Hale also enjoyed the team state experience in cross country. She split her fall months between the sports with an emphasis on swimming but performed well enough to run with the Blugolds during a third-place Division 3 finish in Wisconsin Rapids a couple of weeks ago.
“I just tried to communicate well with my coaches (to navigate the seasons), and I took it a little easier in cross country to focus on swimming because I really wanted to make it to state,” Hale said. “I ran two to three days per week, went to swim practice and tried to get as much sleep as I could. Rest was important.”
The top seed in the 200 free, she said, brought with it plenty of pressure. But Hale overcame the nerves, solved the issue and won the race by 2.7 seconds. Beating her seed time by 3 seconds gae her a spot Lane 8 in the second of three heats.
Hale is seeded 16th in the 200 and 17th in the 500, where she will be in Lane 4 of the first heat. Waukesha South/Mukwonago senior Ella Antoniewski is trying to win both events for a fourth time and has the top seed in both.
The surprise of the sectional, Schauske said, could have been the relay victory.
Hale, Foster, Gilles and Wolff didn’t just lead the race throughout as its third seed, they cut 6 seconds from their seed time.
The team is seeded ninth at state and will swim in Lane 4 as the fastest qualifier in the second heat.
“I don’t know, Bethany was on a roll,” Foster said when asked what was different about the sectional race. “She was hyped up with her adrenaline and was amazing.
“There was a lot of energy. When the two people in front of me (Gilles and Wolff) both had the lead, it pushed me to go faster, too.”
The belief in success that day was also much different than the beginning or middle of the season. While the team went through several variations, Schauske set the lineup after the final home meet of the season.
Foster, a Holmen senior, said that combination felt right immediately and at least had thinking about the possibility of swimming at state.
“Yeah, for sure,” she said. “All of us swim pretty good times for the events we do, but when I saw this group, I said, ‘Yeah, we’re pretty set.'”
Gilles and Wolff just missed out on joining Hale as individual qualifiers. Gilles was .36 seconds off from qualifying in the 100 butterfly, and Wolff .74 seconds away from the final qualifying spot in the 500 freestyle. Gilles placed third at the sectional and Wolff second to Hale.
Gilles said embracing her leadoff position was important. Her worst times in the relay, she said, came when she started the race.
“I felt cursed,” the Onalaska sophomore said. “My best times always came when I swam second, third or fourth. But I have good starts, good underwaters and good turns, so I knew I’d have to be the first leg.
“I felt a lot of pressure and anxiety, but I knew I had to do it for the seniors, and I had to do it for myself.”
Wolff, a Holmen freshman, said her biggest challenge was taking on a sprint event. After beginning as a club swimmer just a year ago, the longer events — as evidenced by her runner-up sectional finish in the 500 — have been her best.
“I’m not really considered a sprinter,” Wolff said. “I was excited (about joining the relay), but also nervous because the other people on the relay were sprinters, and I didn’t want to let them down.”
Wolff said state was brought up during the season, but only as a possibility and not with the expectation of how things have turned out.
“Abi mentioned once that if we cut 4 seconds from our time, we would have a time to go,” she said. “But I think it was more like finish second at he sectional and be a top 18 seed (at state), not win the sectional.”
Schauske, who competed in the meet as part of the Sturgeon Bay co-op in high school is excited to coach in it for the first time. The strategy, she said, is similar to that of the sectional, which had a little break before it.
“I think we’ve tried to keep the energy up from the weekend,” she said. “This will be a bigger setting with more people watching.
“Also with swim, you taper. They were fully rested for sectionals, so we try to keep them rested so they can perform at their peak. As long as their energy is up, they do whatever they put their minds to.”
