The center of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 swimming and diving world is located in the Whitefish Bay High School pool.
After the Blue Dukes girls team took its second consecutive state title in November, the boys completed their sixth team title run and first since 1998 on Feb. 20 at the 102nd WIAA state boys swimming and diving championships at Waukesha South High School Natatorium. Coach Jenny Hines, who leads both programs, credited the run of good fortune in each program to the quality of athletes that made them happen.
"A year ago when we left state, these guys, they knew they could have a chance coming in this year. I felt like when I told other people that, nobody believed me, like everyone thought I was crazy, but they've just been locked in," Hines said. "I think seeing the girls win kind of gave them the confidence to know, 'Hey, we can do that too,' and they got it done."
Whitefish Bay scored 319 team points to outlast two-time reigning state champion McFarland (241), led by its relay teams and a runner-up dive finish among other standouts. Here are the area highlights from WIAA state swim and dive.
Whitefish Bay's Emory completes comeback from neck injury with runner-up in dive
Whitefish Bay senior diver Tyler Emory had a longer journey back to the state podium than he would have expected as he accepted his gold two years ago. The summer following his diving title win in 2024, while attending a summer camp, Emory was attempting a running dive into a lake and fell short, landing in a sand bank and fracturing his neck.
"They always say, 'Don't dive into lakes, even if you're trying to do a shallow dive,' " Emory said. "I should have listened, so I'm not going to do that again."
Emory was in a neck brace for months, and while he was able to remove it in time for the 2024-25 high school season, he did not feel comfortable testing it yet. Confidence came with rebuilding his strength to employ the technique he said never left.
"By the third week [of this season], I really decided I wanted to get my old dives back, so I started really trying to get all the one-and-a-half's and the double and the twists," Emory said.
The comeback culminated in a second-place finish to Plymouth's Collin Heller (422.35) with his score of 383.45. It is Emory's third top-three finish at D2 state in the event, joining a bronze received as a freshman in 2023 and the 2024 state title. He exited the podium for the first event of the evening hopeful his efforts would still help contribute to a gold for the team's finish.
"I have a lot of faith in my swim team to win for the team here at state, and so I'm really happy about that," Emory said. "I was nervous coming in here about essentially failing to dive and getting something like fifth or sixth, but I'm just happy I could go out not fading out too bad."
Coach Hines said she thanked Emory for diving this year, both for his direct contribution and influencing senior teammate and first-time diver Dominic Tighe.
"They were huge. They totally stepped up, and it is swimming and diving, and we needed those points tonight," Hines said.
Tighe (216.15) finished 10th in the dive after only picking up the event four months ago. Emory said Tighe has become a good friend this season, adding that their relationship has been another fun aspect of his comeback effort this year.
"Watching him [was] sometimes a little frustrating for myself, just seeing someone get exponentially better really quick, and he's learning all these dives in like two months that took me three years originally to get to, but he's a really good guy," Emory said.
Cedarburg sophomore Quinn Edwards also podiumed (fourth, 336.95) for the second time in his career in the dive after a runner-up finish as a freshman last year.
Blue Dukes ride depth, relays to team title
While Whitefish Bay's depth and podium finishes from Emory, Fischer Jakowski, Miles Jakowski and Steven Camacho were significant contributors, the biggest area of improvement leading to a state title for the Blue Dukes came in their relays. A 200-yard medley relay team (Miles Jakowski, Finn Sprau, Fischer Jakowski, Camacho) that placed second to McFarland last year won the event this year, while 200 (Camacho, John Schuchard, Sprau, AJ Katch) and 400 freestyle relay (Katch, Schuchard, Fischer Jakowski, Camacho) teams that finished sixth and fifth, respectively, last year each took second this year.
Coach Hines said the silvers in those relays were led by a selfless approach from Camacho.
"He takes away one of his individual events to help the three relays, and our three relays would not have won second and second without Steven," Hines said. "He could score great in the 100 free on his own, but he likes to do those three relays and it's so helpful for our team. He's just a great leader."
Camacho admitted the evening was bittersweet for him personally as his third in the 50 freestyle (:21.28) came on a race he felt was not his best.
"Halfway through the meet, there was kind of this emotional situation that I had to deal with, trying to kind of come back from not going as fast as I wanted to and realizing that this team is more important, and winning the actual entire state as a team is realistically more important to me," Camacho said.
He was able to turn the corner and deliver over the latter half of the meet, however, adding to a :21.29 anchor leg of the winning 200 medley relay before his 50 freestyle with a :21.23 first leg of the second place 200 freestyle and splits of :22.11 and :47.15 swimming anchor again for the second place 400 freestyle relay.
Camacho said uniting around a shared goal of making it a "legendary" season brought teammates closer together than he had ever seen in his career.
"We all are just so close inside and out of swim that we're able to kind of boost each other up, to really push one another and work hard to ensure we drop time," Camacho said.
Senior Fischer Jakowski, who placed third in the 100 butterfly (:50.57) and fourth in the 200 IM (1:56.61), said his time in the former was one he had been chasing this entire season. Specifically, he wanted to break Doug Lillydahl's program record of :51.60 in the butterfly. Chasing that individual history in the pursuit of the program's sixth title was his way of honoring the efforts of those who came before him.
"We wanted to do them right to make them proud," Fischer Jakowski said.
Also reaching the podium individually to highlight the title-winning effort for the Blue Dukes were junior Miles Jakowski in the 100 backstroke (second, :50.87), sophomore Briggs Borchardt in the 200 IM (sixth, 1:59.51), junior Schuchard in the 50 freestyle (sixth, :21.91), senior Katch in the 100 freestyle (sixth, :48.36) and senior Simon Gahr in the 500 freestyle (sixth, 4:54.43).
Port Washington's Prince finishes career with two silvers
Port Washington senior Charlie Prince had flirted with higher podium finishes his whole career, but entering the 2026 state meet he had just bronze medals to show for it through his first three state appearances. By night's end Feb. 20, Prince had added a pair of silver medals to his collection to end his career on a high note. His 200 IM time of 1:53.81 outperformed a third seed while coming in behind only Stoughton's Gavin Reiser (1:52.35), and his 100 breaststroke time of 56.62 trailed only Reiser (:54.77) as well.
"Especially coming from last year, being a bronze and lower than that in my two races, it feels really good. I feel really accomplished and happy with both of them," Prince said.
The 200 IM unfolded exactly how Prince said he wanted it to, with a "nice and relaxed" first 50 yards, setup over the middle sections and a "hammer it home" mentality for the final 50.
"That first race really just laid itself out," Prince said. "Second race didn't go exactly how I wanted it to. Unfortunately the first 50 was a little rough, but I tried to come back as best as I could and still got silver."
The Northern Michigan commit will have more competitions ahead, but he will remember the WIAA state environment fondly for his experiences culminating in two silver medals. For the club swimmer who also competes with athletes from other schools outside of the high school season, the state meet is a reunion of sorts for those around the community.
"It's just a super fun environment, having kids from other teams cheer on and then cheering on kids from other teams as well," Prince said. "It's definitely going to be hard to walk away from, but I know there's going to be better ones out there, so I'm excited."
Cedarburg teammates finish first and fourth in 500 freestyle
Cedarburg teammates Grayson Rudich and Collin Pelischek finished first and fourth, respectively, in the 500 freestyle to lead several standouts in a sixth place team finish for the Bulldogs (146). Rudich, a junior, said he races better from the front, which was his emphasis in the first 50 yards of the race while gaining a nearly full second lead on top seed Carter O'Leary of DeForest. He would finish in 4:34.94 to beat out O'Leary (4:37.44) and the rest of the field, which included his freshman teammate Pelischek in fourth (4:50.32).
"I kind of took him under my wing. We have the same club team, so he's kind of talking to me a little bit before the season comes, but he's my training buddy and my lane partner, and he's got a big future ahead of him," Rudich said.
Pelischek, who entered the event as the fifth seed, said he was not putting high expectations on himself in his state debut. As for what Rudich shared with him from his own prior experiences, Pelischek said he embraced the message of feeding off the moment.
"He said, 'This is the most exciting meet you'll ever swim at, so you've got to swim real fast here, feed off that energy," Pelischek said.
Both athletes said the result was a testament to the battles in each practice and meet all season long between the two.
"It was awesome training with him as much as I could keep up with him during the year. They let me know I was kind of on the right path chasing his tail. It's just amazing sharing a podium with him," Pelischek said.
The duo sounded up to the task of going for a one-two finish next year, which Rudich clarified was in no particular order.
"We're gonna be up there together, right next to each other," Rudich said.
Also reaching podium for Cedarburg in the swimming events were junior Dominic Henderson in the 100 butterfly (fourth, :52.12) and a 200 freestyle relay team including senior Tyler Brunn, Henderson, Pelischek and Rudich (sixth, 1:29.87). Rudich added a third in the 200 freestyle.
Other podium highlights
- Nicolet junior Jude Hill won the 100 backstroke (:50.23) and took second in the 200 freestyle (1:40.69) in performances that he dedicated to late teammate Grant Freeze.
- Shorewood's seventh-place team finish (128) was led by a pair of podium finishes in the 100 butterfly (second, :49.61) and 50 freestyle (fourth, :21.33) by junior Ethan Kim. Fellow junior Dash Gansner also made podium in the 100 breaststroke (sixth, 1:01.79), as did a 200 medley relay team consisting of freshman Jerzy Kirk, Gansner, Kim and junior Danny Mielnicki (sixth, 1:39.80).
- Brookfield Academy senior Niall Parkins podiumed in both the 100 backstroke (fourth, :52.65) and 200 freestyle (fifth, 1:45.44).
Full results from the state meet are available on the WIAA website.
Team scores
1, Whitefish Bay, 319; 2, McFarland, 241; 3, Sauk Prairie/Wisconsin Heights, 184; 4, Ashwaubenon, 159; 5, Edgewood, 157.5; 6, Cedarburg, 146; 7, Shorewood, 128; 8, Rhinelander, 117; 9, The Prairie School, 116; 10, Nicolet, 88; 11, Chilton Co-op, 81; 12, DeForest, 80; 13, Stoughton, 79; 14, Whitewater, 68; 15, Watertown, 63.5; 16, Plymouth, 46; 17, Port Washington, 40; 18, Notre Dame/Southern Door, 29.5; 19, Rice Lake, 29; 20, Brookfield Academy, 29; 21, Wayland Academy, 25; 22, Whitnall, 24.5; 23, Grafton, 24; 24, Kiel/Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah, 15; 25, Mount Horeb, 9; 26, Tomahawk, 8; 27, Milton, 7; 28, Augustine Prep South, 4; 29, Fort Atkinson, 1.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WIAA Division 2 boys state swimming and diving championships recap