SUN PRAIRIE — Despite being the smallest team in its WIAA Division 1 sectional, Monroe-New Glarus finished ninth of 14 teams and qualified four events to the state meet at Waukesha South on Saturday, Nov. 16. 

MNG’s combined enrollment is 1,035. The next smallest team in the Sun Prairie West sectional was the Lodi co-op with River Valley and Wisconsin Heights — a combined enrollment of 1,048. Defending state champions Middleton, who handily won the sectional on Saturday, has an enrollment of 2,388 — up 31 students from a year ago.

But the ‘Cheese Knights’ are no strangers to Division 1 competition, as this is the second year they’ve been in this division. It brought out the best in the team, as all but four of 21 entries improved upon their seed times.

Four events qualified for state — Megan Chapman in the 500-yard freestyle, Hadleigh Shunk in the 100-yard backstroke, the 200-yard freestyle relay team and the 400-yard freestyle relay team.All but one of the swimmers that qualified for state this season were at the state meet in 2023 — Kaia Morrison. 

Chapman finished 10th last year in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:09.45 — six seconds faster than this year’s sectional time. The 200-yard freestyle relay returns Delaney Lynch, Anna Zentner and Chapman. Morrison takes the place of Harper Paradis, who now swims club for Verona. The current squad is roughly two seconds slower than last year’s state finish. The 400-yard freestyle relay returns Lynch and Chapman. Shunk and Zentner replace Riley Hoesly, who graduated, and Paradis. The 2024 group is three seconds behind last year’s state finish. Shunk will compete as an individual for the first time in the 100-yard backstroke, but she was a member of the 200-yard medley relay that made state in 2023.