Purple Tide send three relays, two individuals to state tournament

RACINE, Wis.—The Beloit Memorial boys swim team has proven once again that teamwork does truly make the dream work.

The dream in this case is a trip to the WIAA Division 1 State Finals after the Purple Tide advanced all three of their relays along with Aidan Donovan and Charlie Ziemba as individuals after a strong outing at the sectional meet held at Racine Case High School on Saturday morning.

Beloit placed fourth as a team in the meet with 207 points. Franklin won the sectional with 355 points and was followed by the Badger Co-op (316) and Muskego (285).

Beloit’s 200-yard freestyle relay of Donovan, Aidan Greenlee, Ziemba and Sean Goodspeed edged out Muskego by just under a second with a time of 1:27.37 to win the event.

The 200 medley relay of Greenlee, Duke Allen, Donovan and Ziemba finished behind Franklin and Badger to finish third (1:40.11) and the 400 freestyle team of Donovan, Aiden Vanlandingham, Greenlee and Zimeba also took bronze (1:39.71).

Donovan earned a spot in the state finals after he finished fourth in the 200 free but advanced with his time of 1:47.57. Ziemba’s second-place finish in the 100 free (47.83) was the best placement of any Beloit swimmer Saturday.

Other solid finishers who didn’t advance include Greenlee, who took fourth in the 100 backstroke (54.72), Allen, who was sixth in the 100 fly (59.33) and ninth in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.70), Goodspeed, who placed seventh in the 100 free (52.51) and 10th in the 50 free (23.72), and Valandingham, who was 10th in the 500 free (5:16.59).

The Purple Tide will swim at the state championships on Saturday at Waukesha South High School in Waukesha.