03/16/2026
Great job to all swimmers who swam at the state championships! It’s a big accomplishment to qualify for the state meet. Overall, it was a very successful weekend with many best times and seven team records broken!
10&U STATES
Merrick Steele (Gold Group/Marquette) was the first Wildcat in the water on Saturday, where he swam the 50 breast (47.03, 56th) and the 500 free (7:21.48, 17th).
Saturday afternoon started out with the girls 200 medley relay, which consisted of Makaya Hurley (Gold Group/Marquette), Tenley Belanger (Gold Group/Marquette), Sonja Steele (Green Group/Marquette), and Milena Langlieb (Gold Group/Marquette). The girls placed 32nd overall with a final time of 3:01.53. Sonja then had two individual events, the 25 back (24.12, 52nd) and the 50 fly (56.25, 35th).
Sunday morning, Merrick swam two events. His first was the 100 breast, where he placed 54th with a time of 1:47.97, and the second was the 200 free, where he dropped 5.00 seconds and placed 31st with a time of 2:52.81.
The last session of the weekend, started with the 200 free relay, which consisted of Tenley, Milena, Sonja, and Makaya; the team placed 28th with a final time of 2:28.22, about 1.5 seconds faster than their seed time. Sonja then swam the 25 fly, where she placed 27th with a time of 20.82.
SENIOR STATES
The Senior State Championships is a long meet, consisting of three full prelims-finals sessions. For all events shorter than 400 yards, the top 32 swimmers get to come back at night for second opportunity to swim.
The four finals heats are named:
A final (“Championship Final”), for swimmers 1st through 8th
B final (“Consolation Final”), for swimmers 9th through 16th
C final (“Bonus Final”), for swimmers 17th through 24th
D final (“Protected Final”), for swimmers 25th through 32nd, and also reserved for swimmers aged 16 and under
For placing, swimmers are “locked” into their finals heat. For example, if a swimmer qualifies for the B final, then they are only able to place 9th through 16th regardless of their time.
Friday prelims:
Kaytlin Roell (Senior Cats/Marquette) was our first swimmer of the meet with the 100 fly, finishing with a time of 1:02.51 and placing 74th. Kaytlin later swam the 200 back, finishing 61st with a time of 2:15.44.
Henrik Larsen (Senior Cats/Marquette) also swam the 100 fly, finishing with a time of 51.60 (-0.28) and placing 16th, which qualified him for the B final; he also broke his team record from 2025. Henrik’s second event was the 50 free, where he placed 26th with a time of 22.03 (-0.04), breaking his own team record and qualifying for the D final.
The last swimmer Friday morning was Olive Krueger (Senior Cats/Marquette), who swam the 1000 free with a time of 11:38.94, placing 39th.
Friday finals:
100 fly, Henrik came back and swam a 51.90, placing 12th overall.
50 free, Henrik placed 26th with a time of 22.11.
Saturday prelims:
Saturday started off with our girls 400 medley relay, which consisted of Olive (1:05.93, -0.31), Loralei Maki (Senior Cats/Marquette) (1:21.50), Kaytlin (1:03.51), and Lilliana Fogaroli (Senior Cats/Marquette) (1:02.03). The girls finished with a time of 4:32.97, placing 45th overall.
Henrik was our first individual swimmer with the 200 fly, where he placed 10th with a time of 1:56.50. He also swam the 100 free, placing 12th with a time of 47.40 (-0.03), breaking yet another of his team records. He qualified in both of these events to swim in the B final.
Olive swam the 100 free, placing 120th with a time of 58.68. She also swam the 500 free, finishing with a time of 5:40.78 and placing 58th.
Kaytlin swam the 500 free, placing 38th with a time of 5:23.44.
Saturday finals:
This finals session started off with another girls relay, this time the 200 free relay. Our A team placed 43rd with a time of 1:47.78 (Olive: 27.28, Loralei: 27.33, Lilliana: 27.95, Kaytlin: 25.22), which broke our team record previously set in 2019!
In the 200 fly, Henrik came back and placed 11th with a time of 1:56.05 (-0.19), breaking his own record from the previous year.
Later, in the 100 free, Henrik placed 14th with a time of 47.72.
Sunday prelims:
Our last relay of the weekend was the 400 free relay. The WAC-A team, which consisted of Olive (59.78), Loralei (1:01.18), Lilliana (1:01.34), and Kaytlin (57.11) placed 43rd with a time of 3:59.41.
Henrik was our first individual swimmer, racing in the 50 fly (23.77) and placing 17th and qualifying for the C final. His next event of the morning was the 200 free, where he placed 14th with a time of 1:45.13 and qualified for the B final.
Kaytlin swam the 200 free, placing 57th with a time of 1:59.67 (-0.66). This was Kaytlin’s first time swimming the 200 free in under two minutes, and was also a team record! Kaytlin is the first 15&O girl in our team history to swim the 200 free in under 2:00.
Olive was the last swimmer of the morning, swimming the 1650 free. She finished 28th with a time of 19:33.65.
Sunday finals:
Henrik first swam the 50 fly, placing 17th with a time of 23.82.
For his last event, Henrik swam the 200 free and had the best race of his entire weekend, placing 9th with a time of 1:42.62. His first 100 split was 49.77 and second was 52.85, and he was well ahead of the rest of the heat for the entire race. This time would have placed 4th in the A final!! This time was also a team record.
On to Long Course Season!!!
