Bartlett's Hasenberg, Brady qualify for state

Anyone who saw Bartlett senior Josh Hasenberg play football last fall certainly wouldn't have thought the Hawks quarterback was in any way out of shape.

Then Hasenberg hit the pool as he returned to the school's swim team - and realized just how much work needed to be done.

The long road is nearly over, and Hasenberg took a large step toward returning to state swim prominence when he qualified in both his individual events at Saturday's St. Charles East sectional.

"I felt a lot better," said Hasenberg, who will play football at Colgate in the fall. "It's been hard because our football season was extended because we went to the semifinals. It's been hard getting back into shape."

The early weeks of the swim season were a definite shock to Hasenberg's system.

"It really was," he said. "I thought I was in shape from football. But getting back to the pool, it took me a month before I felt I was going anywhere in the pool. It's a total body workout and it's completely different."

St. Charles East's sectional was the fastest in the state this year. The meet qualified a state-best 66 swimmers to next week's state meet at New Trier. Three of those entries belong to Bartlett. Hasenberg qualified in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 freestyle, Mike Brady advanced to his first state meet in the 50 freestyle.

"It's really good to be a part of a sectional that's that fast," Bartlett coach Carl Metzke said. "You know that if you're achieving something at that sectional, you're swimming fast."

Hasenberg has looked rough in the water for much of the winter season. But after a two-week break following the Upstate Eight Conference meet to concentrate on technique, he is close to where he was as a sophomore, when he placed in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.

"I didn't feel like I was in that much shape, so I didn't go with my best two events - the 200 IM and the 100 breast," Hasenberg said. "I decided to go with the 50 and 100 free. I thought I might have a little better chance of placing in the sprint freestyle."

Hasenberg was only partially tapered for Saturday's meet. He will rest more in the week leading to the state meet. Swimmers train excessively hard in-season, then back off that frenetic pace at the very end in order to gain large time drops.

"I really haven't started tapering because I needed some background swimming," Hasenberg said. "I lifted this week. I'll stop lifting now and hopefully, I'll carry things into state."

While Brady's advancement in the 50 freestyle was positive, the senior just missed making the state cut in the 100 freestyle.

"A little bit of disappointment for Brady in the 100 free," Metzke said. "We've been swimming fast. We were fast two weeks ago here at the conference meet. We're excited to go there. This is the first time for (Brady) and he's kind of squirrely right now. But it'll really be a fun time next week."

Marmion won the sectional championship with a score of 232. St. Charles North was second and St. Charles East third. As a team, Bartlett finished seventh with 101 points.