BELOIT—The Beloit Memorial boys swim team came into the season with its primary goal set at getting as many people into the WIAA Division 1 State Championships as possible.
The Purple Tide couldn’t have accomplished their mission without a few acts of selflessness.
“We sat down the week before the conference meet and said ‘All right, what’s going to get us there?,’” senior Aidan Donovan said. “That was something that was really tough to think about.
“The first thing we decided is that we wanted all three relays to go. And the way to do that was to take me, Charlie (Ziemba) and Aidan Greenlee and give us only one individual (event to swim at sectionals). Obviously that’s a hit to us.”
But that’s just how Beloit rolls. Its unofficial mantra might as well be “teamwork makes the dream work.” Swimmers are not allowed to take part in more than four events in the postseason. But, the trio didn’t think twice and decided to take away a chance at going to state in two individual events in order to compete on and strengthen their relay squads.
The result? All three of the Purple Tide’s relays are heading to Waukesha South High School in Waukesha, Wis. to compete for a state championship on Saturday. Donovan will also swim in the 100-meter freestyle while Ziemba will participate in the 200 free after both qualified as individuals.
“We definitely chose correctly,” Donovan said.
“They have a sense of teamwork and hard work, knowing what it’s going to take to send as many kids possible to state,” first-year head coach Brian Michels said. “Going into sectionals this year, it was a tough go at it because the teams that we were in with were very competitive and very high-end swimmers.”
Greenlee, Duke Allen, Donovan and Ziemba kicked things off at the Racine Case Sectional on Saturday with a third-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay (1:40.11). The 400 free relay of Donovan, Aiden VanLandingham, Greenlee and Ziemba also placed third (1:39.71) to qualify for state.
But the best team performance of the day came from the 200 free relay of Donovan, Greenlee, Ziemba and Sean Goodspeed, which edged out Muskego by just under a second to finish in 1:27.37 and take first.
“It’s really just the teamwork,” Ziemba said. “We really find ways to push each other. We’re very competitive. And we keep each other motivated behind the blocks. It’s the small words of wisdom before the race.”
The Purple Tide finished fourth in the tough sectional behind Franklin, the Badger co-op and Muskego.
“We were locked in that day,” Donovan said. “We showed up at the meet expecting to do really well. We had our medley relay start off and it dropped four seconds, that set the tone for the day. Everyone just went crazy, and the team was really connected.”
Donovan also shouted out some of his senior teammates for doing some of the under-the-radar work.
“It goes under-appreciated sometimes that guys like Mason (Webeter) and Devin (Froemming) — they’re not expected to make it to state. But, they’re there at sectionals and they’re swimming their hearts out and they’re cheering for everyone else.”
Beloit is especially hopeful that its 200 free, which is currently ranked fourth in the state, is able to make its way onto the podium.
“After our second swimmer went in (on Saturday), we knew right away that we were pulling for first and we weren’t looking back,” Michels said.
Donovan gets to swim in the 200 free after placing fourth with a time of 1:47.57. It is his second-straight season qualifying for state after he finished 14th in the 100 free last year.
“Aidan has a natural talent for swimming,” Ziemba said. “He’s been doing it for a very long time. He works really hard, too. He’s very motivated in the pool to be very fast and get what he wants.”
Ziemba, a junior, will compete as an individual for the first time after he finished second in the 100 free Racine in 47.83 seconds.
“Charlie is a really hard worker,” Donovan said. “Sometimes during practice he might have an off day or whatever, but it doesn’t really matter because the next day he’ll come back and he’ll be just as good as he was before. At meets, he turns it up to an 11. I don’t know where he finds his times from, he just goes crazy, especially at the end of the season.”
The Division 1 state diving competition begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with the swimming events scheduled for 2:30 p.m., starting with the 200-yard medley relay.
“It’s hard because we overthink a lot — it’s a lot of stress,” Ziemba said. “But in the end, it’s really what you don’t think about. It’s all the muscle memory and all the hard work that we put in throughout the season. It really does translate at the end to us doing really well.”
• EVENT STREAMED: Every event of the state meet will be streamed live on the WIAA.TV portal of the NFHS Network on a subscription basis. To purchase a subscription to the live programming for $11.99 per month, log-on to www.wiaa.tv or www.nfhsnetwork.com and click on the “Subscribe Now” link located at the top right area of the page. Archived streams of the meets will be available on demand on the NFHS Network 72 hours after the tournament with a subscription.
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