By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
Defense has been ruling for Homestead High School's football team, especially in the faces of Ben Gardner and Shelby Harris.
Homestead, which lost in the Division 1 state finals last year, is in the semifinals this weekend against Middleton.
Dave Keel is back for another season as head coach. His team beat Racine Park 42-6 last weekend to advance to the state semis.
Eric Daniels led Homestead on the ground against Racine Park.
The Highlanders held Racine Park's explosive running back Deon McLain, who was averaging 233 rushing yards per game, to only 70 yards.
Racine Park was limited to 120 yards on offense.
“The defensive line played great,” said Keel, pointing to NCAA Division I players Harris (6-3, 240, Wisconsin) at defensive tackle and Gardner (6-3, 225) at defensive end, who has offers pending.
“Shelby has a terrific motor. He usually jumps off the ball well and keeps on going,” Keel said. “Running away from him is tough. Gardner does those things extraordinarily well also. He intercepted a pass (against Racine Park) and nearly returned it for a touchdown.”
Harris was the state's defensive player of the year in 2007. Gardner is the defensive player of the year in 2008 for the conference.
“Middleton also has some great athletes,” Keel said. “We'll have to be ready for them.”
More Football
* Defending Division 1 champion Arrowhead has won 26 straight games, including a 35-0 win over Hartford in quarterfinal action last weekend. Running back Brian Crook, a junior, scored four touchdowns.
Kicker/punter Jeff Budzien showed his big leg with a 63-yard punt and five kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks. He's got colleges like Michigan looking at him.
* Frank Spath ran for two touchdowns in Wisconsin Lutheran's 33-27 victory over Greendale. Spath has had 1,373 rushing yards on 169 attempts for 8.1 yards per try and 18 touchdowns this season. The winners had 375 rushing yards.
Swimming and Diving
Madison Memorial was runner-up last season in the closest race for a title in state history, losing by 3 ½ points to Madison East.
Madison Memorial Coach Jason Verhelst noted that his team won its 23rd dual meet title and fourth in a row and 24th conference meet title and fourth in a row in the Big Eight.
“We won our sectional on Saturday,” Verhelst said. “More importantly, we qualified 18 individual entries which is the max you can qualify for state. We're pretty excited.”
The finals are at the University of Wisconsin.
The top two swimmers have been Jackie Powell, who broke the pool record at Middleton in the sectionals in the 200 freestyle. She's the 100-meter backstroke sectional champion, and Kayla Smith, a 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle standout.
“Last year they were team MVPs for us,” Verhelst said. “We're looking for them this year again to be our top point producers. Both of them are mentally tough, especially Jackie. She swam in our 200 individual medley relay, which is the event directly before the 200 free. She's tough in many ways, mentally and physically.
“Kayla will be in her fourth year at state. So she's a four-time state qualifier. She's an extremely talented sprinter and has been an anchor leg on our relays the last couple of years.”
Verhelst said his team can be in the top two with strong performances from Powell, Smith and others.
“The frontrunner going into it is Hartland Arrowhead,” Verhelst said. “They're the team to beat. They have a lot of depth.”
