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Sports

Despite Finishing Ninth at State, Swim Coach Pleased with Outcome

Friesch earns two medals at competition in Madison.

The Whitefish Bay boys swim team heard the rumblings. They knew people were looking down on them a little because they weren’t quite as dominant as they so often are. 

That didn’t change Bay head coach Jim Davis’ approach heading into the Division 2 WIAA State Swim Meet at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium in Madison. 

“We just told (the team) to relax,” Davis said. “Just relax. We’re going to go in and warm up do a couple fast things and see what happens. And it happened, I thought. They (the team) just really did a great job.” 

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The Blue Dukes finished ninth overall with 106 points. 

Considering the Blue Dukes finished second last year with an overall total of 238 points, some might view Friday’s results as a failure.  

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But not Davis. 

“This was a very successful season," he said. "These guys really stepped it up and that’s what I was so proud of them for how they did that and what they did. We were never down, we never made excuses, we just always kept going forward and forward and the results were there.  

“It was a great season and I really give a lot of credit to our two seniors: Bobby (Rinka), our diver and DJ (Friesch). They did awesome. They really held things together.” 

Rinka started things off in the first event of the night by posting a score of 318.00 in diving, good enough for sixth place overall. 

Friesch kept that trend of having Bay make it to the podium going in the 200 individual medley by post a time of 1 minute, 58.36 seconds, landing him in fifth place. 

He moved higher up that podium later in the day as he finished third in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.18 seconds, breaking the school record.  

Despite not placing in any of their other events, the Dukes still looked at the day as a positive as they dropped time of their previous personal bests in the 200 medley relay, 200 free, 100 free and 400 free relay. 

“(We were) outstanding,” Davis said. “We dropped (time in) every event. Every event our guys were in they really came to swim. We had great preparation throughout the last couple weeks: good conference meet, good sectional meet and this one. I can’t be any happier with how they performed today.” 

“I couldn’t have asked any more from them. It was just an awesome performance.”

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