Sports
Cox Captures State Diving Crown; Brookfield Shows Well
Menomonee Falls senior scores 511 for comfortable victory in WIAA finals at Madison.
The Menomonee Falls co-op boys swim team may not have displayed depth at the WIAA Division 1 state meet on Saturday, but the representatives who did participate, shined.
Menomonee Falls senior Nathan Cox put on quite a show in the diving portion of the tournament. The future Purdue Boilermaker took first in a landslide, tallying 511.15 points.
The next closest in the standings was a tie for second between Homestead’s Erik Larsen and Racine Case’s Richard Bradley, who each scored 455.55.
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Cox said despite being the heavy favorite coming into the event he really wasn’t nervous.
“I really didn’t change the approach too much,” he said. “The only thing I really thought was that this was my last high school meet so I might as well just go out with a splash.”
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Those splashes clearly impressed the seven judges on hand as Cox’s score was the eighth highest among the all-time state top performances list.
Teammate Ryan Thomann, the only other member of the co-op representing Menomonee Falls, Germantown and Sussex Hamilton to make the tournament, also did well off the diving board, earning a score of 333.75, good enough for 14th place.
Said Cox of how he and his team finished, “It’s great. It’s definitely the way I want to go out.”
Meanwhile, other area divers finished fairly well. Nicolet sophomore Evan Silverhaus advanced to the final round and took 16th (292.85) while Brookfield East/Cetral junior Will Sass also advanced to the finals and took 11th (348.85).
Brookfield East/Central had plenty of success outside of diving also.
Freshman Brian Borden shaved nearly one second off his state-qualifying time by finishing the 100 backstroke in 56.04 seconds. Junior Erik Wahlgren finished just outside the podium, as his time of 48.40 was good enough for eighth place in the 100 freestyle.
The junior also ended up in the middle of the pack in the 50 freestyle, finishing with a time of 22.12, landing him in 13th.
Wahlgren then teamed up with seniors Brad Bartel, Alex Howland and Justin Kapke to take 14th in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1 minute, 30.91 seconds.
East/Central finished with an overall team score of 27, placing its tied for 20th with Waukesha West/Mukwonago. Menomonee Falls/Germantown/Sussex Hamilton finished tied for 22nd with Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln with 23 points.