By STEPHEN GLOVER
For the Call
With a 15th-place finish at last week’s state swimming and diving championships, the Oakville Senior High boys’ swimming and diving team is setting its sights on lofty goals.
“Overall, I thought that we did fantastic,” Oakville head coach Dan Schoenfeldt said. “Both of our relays swam really well and I think we have a promising future. Our goal in two years is a top five finish at state.”
Oakville senior Greg Marx set the tone for the Tigers in the 200-yard freestyle with a 10th-place finish, breaking the school record with a time of 1:46.80.
“Greg had a great swim,” Schoenfeldt said. “In the preliminaries swim he had one bad turn, but he came back on Saturday and had his personal best with the 1:46. I think he inspired the team to do great things in the relays.”
The Tigers crushed a school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, taking 10th-place overall with a time of 3:22.99. Sophomore Chris Duckworth led off the Tigers with a 52.6, while freshman Jeff Gansmann swam the second leg in 51.81. Sophomore Joe Ewing cranked out a blazing 49.68, and Marx anchored the relay with a 48.84.
“That (400-yard relay) was the highlight of the meet for me,” Schoenfeldt said. “No relay in school history had actually gone under 3:30 and we smashed that. It was a personal best for all four and the good news is that Greg is the only senior on that relay.”
Marx finishes his career at Oakville with records in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle events along with his role in the school’s record-breaking performance at state in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The four swimmers also had a good showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay, placing 10th with a time of 1:32.51.
“They were slightly slower than they had gone the day before. Joe got us off to a good start and Greg split a 22.04 and brought us home,” Schoenfeldt said.
The Tigers also had success in the one-meter springboard as freshman Nick Stoppelmann took 13th-place honors with a score of 323.30. Stoppelmann was just one of four freshmen to place at the state championships this year.
Oakville also has some up-and-coming prospects in sophomore diver Dan Du-quette and freshman 100-yard breaststroke specialist Tom Diekemper.
Duquette qualified for state in his first year of diving and placed 36th with a score of 116 points in one round of diving.
“The thing is that Dan just started diving five months ago,” Schoenfeldt said.
Diekemper took 17th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.94, two seconds faster than his previous best.
“It was a really good swim for Tom,” Schoenfeldt said. “A two-second drop is huge for anybody.”