Rebuilding season for Indians tankers ends up with five state qualifiers

It takes a lot to make Menomonee Falls/Germantown/Hamilton boys swim coach Jim Weitzer smile, but smiling he was this past weekend, as the vast rebuilding job he and the Indians had to do this season is ending on an extremely positive note.

The local co-op, whose only returning state meet qualifier was diver Ryan Thomann, advances three individuals and two relays to this Saturday's WIAA State Division 1 meet at the UW-Madison Natatorium.

"This group has come a long, long ways," Weitzer said, after Saturday's strong WIAA sectional efforts at Nicolet. "There's a great deal of satisfaction for the guys who have worked hard and made their taper work.

"And probably for those who didn't, there's a bit of motivation to work a bit harder next year."

The Indians send the senior Thomann back in diving along with sophomore John Seiler in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 butterfly, along with the 200 free relay team of Seiler, senior Ryan Litzau, senior Michael Spankowski and sophomore Matt Ciolkosz; and the 400 free relay team of Seiler, Litzau, senior Sam Green and Ciolkosz.

Diving takes place at 10 a.m. Saturday with swimming to commence at 3 p.m. Thomann was 14th last season at the state meet behind now-graduated state champion, teammate and current Purdue scholarship diver Nathan Cox.

The local co-op took third in the 11-school sectional with 253 points as Arrowhead won with 423.

Thomann had the best individual finish with a runner-up total of 371.0 points.

Seiler earned his spots with a third in the 50 free (22.22 seconds) and a fourth in the butterfly (54.23).

Free relay cuts time

The 200 free relay was also third with a season-best of 1:30.96 while Weitzer noted that the most exciting race was the 400 free relay, as the team dropped close to four seconds from its previous season best with a 3:23.78.

"John (Seiler) started that with a sub-50 second split which really helped," Weitzer said. "Then the others just adopted an attitude of 'I don't want to lose this!' with good splits of around 51 seconds each."

Weitzer said that there were numerous other good swims as he highlighted efforts by Litzau in the 50 free and Green in the 200 and 500 freestyle.

"There were huge drops in time," Weitzer said, "and again, they were showing that they were ready to do it in practice. A lot of people were ending (the season) on a good note."

Other places by event for the Indians included the following: 200 medley relay: Brad Kruppe, Paul Porter, Lucas Runingen and Spankowski, sixth (1:49.17); 200 free: Green, sixth (1:55.11); Sam Neale, 14th (1:58.71); 200 individual medley: Ciolkosz, fifth (2:05.86); Cal Weber, 12th (2:19.64); 50 free: Litzau, fifth (22.88); Kruppe, 13th (23.96); 100 butterfly: Runingen, 15th (1:02.77); 100 free: Ciolkosz, 11th (52.04); Litzau, 13th (52.65); and Spankowski, 15th (53.13); 500 free: Green, fourth (13-second PB, 5:08.61); Neale, eighth (5:22.76); 100 backstroke: Kruppe, ninth (1:02.15); and 100 breast stroke: Porter, ninth (1:07.29).