BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT
SUAMICO – Will the Bay Port boys’ swim team ever lose?
It doesn’t appear that way after the Pirates beat Manitowoc Lincoln by a 137-33 score Jan. 18 at the Lineville Community Pool on senior night. With the Fox River Classic Conference victory over the ships, Bay Port has yet to lose a conference dual or invite this season – a total of 10 meets.
“We haven’t lost a meet all year and we don’t want to,” said Bay Port head coach Steve Jeffers. “I didn’t totally expect to be in this situation because of our meet over the holidays where we had two, top-10 teams in the state there. I think we’ve come out and surprised some teams at how deep we are. It’s kind of icing on the cake for these seniors.”
The Pirates have a dual meet with Ashwaubenon remaining and then the FRCC meet Feb. 3 at Sheboygan South, the WIAA D1 Sectional meet at Neenah Feb. 10, which will then be followed by the state meet Feb. 17-18 in Madison.
“We have another two weeks of tough workouts remaining before we start to wind down to the championship season,” Jeffers said. “I’m really excited to see this group of guys swim tapered and rested. The guys have been swimming fast all season, but they’ve also been swimming fairly tired all season. I expect some great things out of them coming up.”
Bay Port will be gunning for its third FRCC championship in a row and a sectional title for the second straight season.
Bay Port won every event versus the Ships and took second in ten others. The Pirates also came across third in seven events, showing their exceptional depth.
Calvin Schilz and Aaron Donovan were double winners on the night.
The nine seniors – Schilz, Donovan, Alec Jeffers, Peter Martin, Wyatt Dvorak, Mitchell Meurer, Isiah Konopacki, Jakob Lippert and Max Schauer – have made a long-lasting impression on the program and Jeffers.
“These seniors started off as freshman being fourth in the conference, swimming with no pool,” said Jeffers about the senior group, who had to travel to UWGB via bus every day during that season in 2014. “We are blessed with this pool and if you reflect on it, it’s pretty cool. They are something – the seniors overall are a great and respectful group of guys that come from all different corners. They love and fight like brothers, but overall they are a close-knit family.”
Top three Bay Port – Jan. 18 vs. Manitowoc Lincoln
200 Medley Relay: 1, BP (Alec Jeffers, Peter Martin, Calvin Schilz, Jakob Lippert), 1:48.21; 2, BP (Tucker Rudolph, Ben Storby, Griffin Hawley, Alec Tuttle), 1:55.84.
200 Freestyle: 1, BP, Aaron Donovan, 1:50.38; 3, BP, Isiah Konopacki, 1:56.20.
200 IM: 1, BP, Schilz, 1:59.70; 2, BP, Kyle Zerbel, 2:11.72; 3, BP, Logan Jolly, 2:24.74.
50 Freestyle: 1, BP, Wyatt Dvorak, 23.46; 2, BP, Mitchell Meurer, 23.63; 3, BP, Jeffers, 24.17.
100 Butterfly: 1, BP, Donovan, 56.49; 2, BP, Dvorak, 56.94; 3, BP, Konopacki, 1:00.09.
100 Freestyle: 1, BP, Hawley, 50.15; 2, BP, Zerbel, 52.25.
500 Freestyle: 1, BP, Jeffers, 5:06.53; 2, BP, Martin, 5:06.94; 3, BP, Storby, 5:25.05.
200 Freestyle Relay: 1, BP, (Hawley, Dvorak, Meurer, Max Schauer), 1:36.45; 2, BP (Konopacki, Victor Kostov, Rudolph, Donovan), 1:39.89.
100 Backstroke: 1, BP, Tuttle, 1:00.73; 2, BP, Martin, 1:02.09; 3, BP, Storby, Ben, 1:04.09.
100 Breaststroke: 1, BP, Schilz, 1:02.61. 2, BP, Kostov, 1:09.04. 3, BP, Meurer, 1:09.33.
400 Freestyle Relay: 1, BP (Dvorak, Donovan, Schilz, Jeffers), 3:26.71; 2, BP (Zerbel, Meurer, Kostov, Martin), 3:43.49.
