HUDSON — Senior Bethany Hale will represent the Holmen/Aquinas/G-E-T/Onalaska girls swim team in three events at next weekend’s WIAA Division 1 state meet after winning a trio of sectional championships on Saturday.
Hale, an Aquinas senior who also represented the third-place Blugolds at last week’s state cross country meet, won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 55.93 seconds, added a win in the 500 freestyle (5:16.9) and swam with the winning 200 freestyle relay (1:39.92).
The winner in each event at Saturday’s Hudson Sectional secured a spot in the state meet at the Waukesha South Natatorium on Nov. 15. Holmen senior Lydia Foster, Onalaska sophomore Elin Gilles and Holmen freshman Onnalee Wolff also helped the 200 freestyle relay qualify and are automatic state qualifiers.
The relay made significant cut from its seed time of 1:45.09, which was third-fastest in the field going into the meet.
The co-op placed fourth as a team with 229 points in a meet won by Hudson’s 329.5. The Logan/Central/West Salem co-op placed ninth (149).
The contingent will be the first to represent the team at state since Kelsey Linzmeyer placed 12th in the 100 butterfly in 2015.
Wolff nearly qualified in two individual events, which take the best 18 times not by a sectional champion to fill its heats. The freshman just missed out on one of those spots after placing second to Hale in the 500 free style (5:21.59) and third in the 200 freestyle (1:59.27).
Gilles added a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly (59.53) and ninth-place performance in the 100 backstroke (1:04.3). She also swam with sophomore Lydia Hale, junior Josie Ruppel and Foster for a sixth-place showing in the 200 medley relay (1:55.55).
Bethany Hale, Wolff, senior Alivia Wickstrom and sophomore Zeena Ott were seventh in the 400 freestyle relay (3:49.28). Ott was also eighth in the 100 freestyle (59.46) and ninth in the 200 individual medley (2:26.03, while Rupple was eighth in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.51).
The Logan/Central/West Salem team was led by a third-place finish from its 200 freestyle relay team of senior Johanna Hall, senior Avery Farmer, junior Annika Vianden and sophomore Ella Regan (1:42.38).
Regan was also fourth in the 200 individual medley (2:19.85), fifth in the 100 butterfly (1:00) and swam with Hall, Farmer and freshman Lily Wolf on the sixth-place 400 freestyle relay (3:46.34).
Hall was also seventh in the 50 freestyle (25.5) and eighth in the 100 backstroke), while Wolf was seventh in the 500 freestyle (5:32.49).
Farmer added a ninth-place performance in the 200 freestyle (2:03.27), and senior Alyce Wilker placed 10th in the 200 individual medley (2:29.52).
