Muskego relay team snares ninth at state

Muskego - The 200 medley relay team of senior Kristen Kaiser, sophomore Kari Balson, senior Megan Liebl and freshman Katie Taylor earned Muskego's highest finish in Saturday's WIAA Division 1 State Swimming and Diving Meet, taking ninth in 1 minute, 50.41 seconds.

Balson secured the best individual spot with her 10th place in the 100 breast stroke at 1:07.3, while 12th places were taken by Liebl in the 100 butterfly (58.4 seconds) and Kaiser in the 500 freestyle (5:12.44).

The 400 freestyle unit of Taylor, sophomore Jessica Pollack, Liebl and Kaiser finished 13th (3:38.69) and Taylor came in 14th in the 100 backstroke (59.03).

Taylor was also 16th in the 200 individual medley (2:11.37) for the Warriors' final scoring spot.

Freshman Erin Scholz finished 21st in the preliminaries for diving with 144.25 points and just missed qualifying for the semifinals, which included the top 20.

Balson, Pollack, sophomore Casey Balson and sophomore Sara Biro finished 22nd in the 200 freestyle relay (1:41.9), while in the 100 backstroke, Liebl took 22nd (1:00.89) and Kaiser 24th (1:02.04).

Muskego tallied 47 points for 14th place as a team. Fellow Classic 8 Conference teams took the top two spots, as Waukesha South/Mukwonago won with 279 points and Hartland Arrowhead claimed second with 273.

Kaiser and Liebl were the only two seniors on the Warriors' state team, so with everyone else returning, plus a number of other talented underclassmen, Muskego should be solid again next season.

- John Rech