Schroeder YMCA Rewrites Books with Four Relay Records at Wisconsin YMCA Festival

Photo Courtesy: Melissa Wolf

Schroeder YMCA has enjoyed the first two days of the Wisconsin YMCA Festival, setting four national relay marks.

Schroeder’s girls set the YMCA 200 medley relay record on Thursday, as did the boys. Friday, the boys downed records in both relays contested, the 200 freestyle and 400 medley.

The Wisconsin YMCA Festival, hosted at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center in Brown Deer, is one of five nationally – two last week, three occurring simultaneously this week – hosted by local YMCAs for swimmers with nationals cuts. They’ve been created in 2021 in lieu of cancelled national meets.

Schroeder’s girls started the relay rewriting rampage Thursday. The foursome of Alana Berlin, Tori Brostowitz, Megan Hartlieb and Sailor Whowell clocked in at 1:38.94, downing by a massive margin the mark set in 2015 by Middle Tyger YMCA at 1:40.99.

The boys were competing as much against history as against the simultaneous New Jersey meet, where Greater Somerset County YMCA also undercut the existing records but fell behind Schroeder. The 200 medley relay – Ziyad Saleem, Owen Miller, Jack Lustig, Ben Meulemans (19.87 on the end) – went 1:28.53. That’s quicker than the record on the books, set in 2013 by Somerset YMCA at 1:29.86. And it’s quicker than GSCY went Thursday, 1:28.66.

Friday started with a 1:20.86 from Schroeder in the 200 free, powered by Saleem going 19.77 on the third leg. That is nearly a second faster than the 1:21.71 from Springfield (Ill.) in 2014 with Ryan Held out front. Ben Lorenz, Meulemans and Miller rounded out the squad.

The 400 medley relay was even more emphatic: Saleem, Miller, Lustig and Meulemans stopped the clock in 3:14.06. That is decisively quicker than the 3:15.64 by GSCY on Friday and by the 3:17.93 set in 2017 by Sarasota (Fla.). The Schroeder girls also scared the 200 free relay mark, going 1:32.34 to come within .44 of knocking it off.

In the individual events, Lustig won the 400 individual medley in 3:55.53 on Friday, outdueling 200 IM champ Jake Regenwetter of the Champaign County YMCA Heat. Saleem won the 100 fly in 48.88, just .03 ahead of Heat’s Andrew Lin. Meulemans won the 200 free on Thursday with Lorenz second.

Lustig was second in the 500 free to Quinn Cynor, who also went 1:36.53 to win the 200 free. It took 4:24.26 to win the 500 for the Kishwaukee YMCA/DeKalb County swimmer.

The only girl with two individual wins after two days of the Wisconsin YMCA Festival is Angela Coe. The Heat swimmer broke two minutes with a 1:59.18 to win the 200 IM, then claimed the 100 fly. Schroeder’s Lilly Zippel was third to Coe in the 200 IM before capturing Friday’s 400 IM. Brostowitz claimed second in the 200 IM and third in the 100 fly.

Kayleigh Lovell of Springfield YMCA won the 500 free in 4:53.13, outdueling B.B. Ryall YMCA’s Annie Andres by just over a second. Lovell was second in the 200 free with Andres third.

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