Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls (WQOW) --The Eau Claire Memorial/North and Chippewa Falls/McDonell co-op boys swimming & diving teams are getting ready for the 88th-annual WIAA State Championships.
The Eau Claire team took first place at last week's Division 1 sectional meet. Eau Claire is sending another strong contingent to Madison, and hopes to improve on last year's finish, when Eau Claire took third place out of thirty-six teams.
"This is the funnest part of the season for me," says senior Jake Folz, "and this is what we've worked for all year, so this is definitely the most exciting part of the season."
Senior Trevor Manz says, "We've lost some kids this season, but we've also had some kids really step it up this season, and we're even back with individual events, where we were last year and even higher, so it should be interesting to see how this year plays out."
Alex DeLakis is the returning champion in two events. He is attempting to win his third straight State title in the 100-yard breaststroke and his second consecutive championship in the 200 individual medley.
DeLakis, a junior, says, "I think both staying relaxed and staying a little aggressive is key in this sport, especially toward the end, because you don't want to psyche yourself out, but you always want to do the best you can do, so you always have to go at it 100 percent."
There's also a contingent from the Chi-Hi/McDonell Central co-op team headed to Madison. Chippewa Falls finished 16th in the Division 1 team standings last season, and is looking for more success in 2012.
"It's hard to tell," says senior Tyler Kren, "because you drop so much time at taper, and if they taper at state they're going to drop some, and if you taper for sectionals you might not drop as much, so it's kind of hard to tell where you're going to finish at the end."
Junior Matt Passint says, "We're going in with confidence, knowing that we have three relays all under the tenth spot, and that's exciting."
UW recruit Austin Byrd won the 100 backstroke last year, and the senior hopes the team can post a strong finish at state.
"Last year, we only had two relays," says Byrd, a senior, "this year we have three relays, and we're seeded higher in each one, so hopefully we can get a lot more points, maybe crack the top ten, which would be awesome."
Eau Claire junior Alex DeLakis
Chippewa Falls senior Austin Byrd
