The Platteville/Lancaster boys’ swimming team earned nine top-six finishes and scored 361 team points to finish third at Saturday’s Southern Lakes Conference Championships.
     The Hillmen finished third and 10th in the meet’s first event, the 200-yard medley relay, putting the team in third place a position it would not relinquish throughout the day.  
     Platteville/Lancaster never got any closer than 35 points of the eventual runner-up Lake Geneva Badger co-op for the rest of the meet and were never challenged for third by any of the second-tier teams in the conference. Elkhorn won both Saturday’s Conference Championships and the overall conference title, which factors in the regular season dual meets.
     Platteville/Lancaster, which went 4-2 in Southern Lakes Conference dual during the season, also finished third in the final overall conference standings.
     “I was very pleased with our performances on Saturday. We rested on few guys and we still turned in some fantastic times,” said Platteville head coach Tom Caccia. “We’ve been working in practice on the details like the way we finish races or the way we break coming out of the turns and starts. Our guys really did well with that aspect of the meet.”
     Platteville sophomore Ben Bahr turned in the team’s top individual performance with a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a new sophomore team record of 1:05.91.
     The Platteville/Lancaster 400-yard freestyle relay team of Ryan Heberlein, Jake Fulton, Nicholas Volkmann and Brenden Polkinghorn also finished second in 3:36.34.
     The Hillmen 200-yard medley relay ‘A’ team of Volkmann, Bahr, Kress and Heberlein finished third in 1:49.58.
Heberlein placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (:52.52) as did the Hillmen 200 freestyle relay team of Kress, Ryan Murray, Wade Roberts and Polkinghorn (1:40.04).
     The Hillmen will return to action Saturday at the WIAA Division 2 Baraboo Sectional. Swimming events begin at 1 p.m.

Southern Lakes Conference Championships
(from Saturday, Feb. 4 @ Jefferson)
Team scores - 1.Elkhorn 579, 2.Badger Co-op 416, 3.Platteville/Lancaster 361, 4.Delavan-Darien 251, 5.Whitewater 238, 6.Burlington 153, 7.Jefferson 125.
Final conference standings - 1.Elkhorn 29.5 points, 2.Badger Co-op 25.0, 3.Platteville/Lancaster 20.5, 4.Delavan-Darien 14.0, 5.Whitewater 13.5, 6.Burlington 5.0, 7.Jefferson 4.5.

Platteville/Lancaster’s top finishers
200 medley relay - 3.Pla/Lan (Nicholas Volkmann, Ben Bahr, Jordan Kress, Ryan Heberlien) 1:49.58. 200 freestyle - 5.Brenden Polkinghorn (P/L) 2:00.70, 6.Jake Adams (P/L) 2:00.77. 50 freestyle - 6.Heberlein (P/L) :24.29. 100 freestyle - 4.Heberlein (P/L) :52.52. 200 freestyle relay - 4.Pla/Lan (Kress, Murray, Wade Roberts, Polkinghorn) 1:40.04, 6.Pla/Lan (Ben Bahr, Colin Salzmann, Grant Roth and Adams) 1:42.95. 100 breaststroke - 1.Ben Bahr (P/L) 1:05.91. 400 freestyle relay - 1.Pla/Lan (Heberlein, Jake Fulton, Volkmann, Polkinghorn) 3:36.34.