2024 Wisconsin Short Course Senior Championships
- February 23-25, 2024
- Schroeder YMCA, Brown Deer, Wisconsin
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
- Meet Results
- Individual High Point
- Team Scores
Speed was on display last weekend in suburban Milwaukee at the 2024 Wisconsin Short Course Senior Championships. While the boys at the meet were coming a week off their high school state meet tapers, female swimmers like Alana Berlin from the Schroeder YMCA Swim Team showed off some pent-up speed ahead of bigger meets later in the spring like the YMCA Short Course National Championships.
Berlin, a high school junior and Stanford commit, swam best times in the 50 back (23.97), 50 breast (28.87), 50 fly (23.69), and, unsurpisingly the 100 IM (54.38).
That 50 backstroke split would have been faster than all but 11 leadoff splits at last year’s NCAA Championships meet – and she still has two full years to go before her first (potential) NCAA appearance.
She also split 23.16 in the 50 fly on a 200 medley relay – again faster than all-but-11 splits at NCAAs last year.
Her mutli-event speed will be crucial for the Stanford women as they look to rebuild their medley relays after the transfer of Claire Curzan, Regan Smith turning pro, and with Torri Huske scheduled for her last season of eligibility in Berlin’s freshman year.
This output follows best times of 22.93 in the 50 free, 52.13 in the 100 back, and 1:49.71 in the 200 free earlier this month at the Schroeder A+ meet.
While Berlin is a sprinter at heart, that’s not the only area where she’s improving: she also swam new lifetime bests in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.54) and 400 IM (4:19.02) at the Wisconsin State Championships.
In total, Berlin won 6 gold medals at the meet – outdone by only Ella Atoniewski of the Waukesha Express Swim Team, who won 7.
Antoniewski, 16, is only a sophomore in high school, but pulled off wins in the 200 free (1:47.35), 500 free (4:53.32), 100 back (53.61), 200 back (1:58.26), and 100 fly (54.83) individually. The 100 and 200 back swims are both lifetime bests.
Berlin led all high point scorers with 192, and Antoniewski was not far behind with 188.
On the boys’ side, it was Abram Mueller from the Badgers Aquatic Club who led the scoring thanks to 3 wins and four other top-three performances.
A week after winning the 100 fly (48.59) and 100 breast (53.77) for Madison West at the Wisconsin D1 State Championship meet, Mueller skipped his primary races and took the opportunity to post best times in some secondary events. That includes the 100 free (45.63) and the 200 free (1:38.15). That 200 free is a half-second drop from this same meet last year, where he swam 1:38.64.
Other Meet Highlights:
- 15-year-old Blake TeBeest didn’t win any races, but he did swim a lot of best times. That includes 20.57 in the 50 free and 45.80 in the 100 free leading off relays, a 1:41.28 in the 200 free, and a 22.78 in the 50 back on a relay leadoff leg.
- Finley Conklin won the 100 breast in 54.51, just out-touching a best time from Drew Gaerthofner of the OSHY Dolphins (54.54). That’s Gaerthofner’s best time by seven-tenths of a second and is 1.3 seconds better than he was for 3rd place a week earlier at the State meet.