Girls swim: Brookfield Central wins GMC Championship

A short-handed Brookfield Central squad scored 550 points and rolled to a Greater Metro Conference Championship on Saturday at West Allis Central.

The Lancers beat out Brookfield East (530) and Divine Savior Holy Angels (443). Menomonee Falls/Hamilton (396), Wauwatosa East (248) and West Allis (88) rounded out the scoring.

"Going into this season, we thought that we could compete for the conference championship," coach William Twitchell said. "But then we lost our best diver ( Kate Mierow, 16th at state last year) and our best distance freestyler ( Courtney Severance) in the same week.

"On paper we should not have been able to compete with either Menomonee Falls or the talented Brookfield East squad. In the end we needed to find 50 points from the pre-score based on the seed times.

"Obviously, not only did we find that 50 points, we added a few more for good measure."

Central, which also won the GMC Relays, won their first conference title in over five years.

The Lancers had two first-place performances by one individual and one relay team.

Freshman Claire Flatley won the 500-yard freestyle in 5 minutes, 25.23 seconds. She also was second in the 200 free (2:01.27).

The 200 free relay of Claire Flatley, senior Lauren Flatley, junior Lauren Locante and sophomore Nikki Wahlgren (1:43.26) also took first place.

The rest of the top-three finishers follow.

Wahlgren was second in the 100 butterfly (1:01.47) and anchored the 400 free of Claire Flatley, Lauren Flatley and freshman Erin Locante (3:46.28).

Wahlgren finished third in the 50 free (26.16) and junior Leah Lee took third in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.22).

The 200 medley relay of senior Sheila Rad, Lee, senior Maddie Severance and freshman Greta Patt (1:57.70) also took third.