Troy A. Bruzewski Leader Correspondent
Photo by Above the Fold Media Shawano Community High School senior swimmer Zach Soper launches from the starting line for the 100 backstroke Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Natatorium during the WIAA state swim meet. Soper won the state title for the backstroke and finished second in the 100 butterfly.
Photo by Above the Fold Media Shawano Community High School senior swimmer Zach Soper happily checks his time after winning the 100 backstroke Friday at the WIAA Division 2 state swimming championships.
The cliché reference “in the blink of an eye” couldn’t be more accurate.
Zach Soper – a senior and defending state champion for Shawano Community High School – was crunching the numbers leading to Friday’s WIAA Division 2 state final at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Natatorium. The defending state champ in the 100 backstroke wanted to become just the fourth swimmer to crack the 50-second mark in the event.
Soper would have joined an NCAA champion, an Olympic gold medalist and a current member of the Badger men’s swim team by finishing with a 4 at the front of his time Friday. He literally couldn’t have come any closer. Soper again bested the field in the 100 backstroke and already was checking the large scoreboard for his time before everyone had touched the wall.
Upon completing their race, the competition saw Soper making the “‘miniscule” gesture with his fingers, to describe how close he came to joining that elite company. He finished in precisely 50 seconds, just .01 seconds from making the 50-second club a four-member organization.
“Very, very close,” Soper said after the meet. “After the sectional I thought, maybe I’d try to get below 50 (seconds) or shoot for the record.”
He finished the sectional in 50.63, which was his career-best mark until Friday. Soper’s time put him 1.65 seconds behind the all-time Division 2 state final record, set by current Badgers swimmer Ryan O’Donnell (48.35).
But while Soper was close to rare company, no other swimmer was close to Soper in the event. Madison Edgewood’s Philip Fochios was the runner-up, finishing more than three seconds behind Soper. He was one of just four swimmers to come within five seconds of the Shawano senior, who said this was the most satisfying of his trips to Madison in February.
Soper earned Shawano’s lone victory in the state final, helping the team to a 14th-place finish in the final team standings.
The Hawks finished with 51 points, while Monona Grove ended with the overall win, finishing with 309 points. McFarland was second with 267 and Shorewood was third with 213.
Shorewood also had the swimmer who prevented Soper from repeating in two events. Michael Perry (50.78) edged Soper (50.88) in the 100 butterfly, which Soper also won in 2014 finals.
Soper said though another title would have been nice, it certainly didn’t put a damper on his night.
“I wanted to repeat and get it again, but it wasn’t a huge disappointment,” he said. “I did what I could and the fly was a lot closer this year.”
Soper also joined the Hawks’ relay teams that qualified for the state final. In the 200 medley relay, Soper, Griffin Rades, Rolando Colon and Jake Klister finished in 1:44.82, placing them 16th overall. Whitewater won the event in 1:36.86.
The same lineup fared better in the 400 freestyle relay – the night’s final event. Klister, Colon, Rades and Soper finished in 3:24.81 to place 12th. Monona Grove won the event – its fourth of the night – with a time of 2:12.05.