Kevin Morales/Daily Register
Portage's Cassidy Steck swims the 100-yard breaststroke during the Badger North Conference Championships on Friday at Waunakee High School.

WAUNAKEE - You might not be able to tell from its dual results or conference finish, but those within Portage's girls swim see a slow yet steady change.

The Warriors are still not in position to compete with the conference's best, but thanks to a youth program and new crop of young swimmers, the hope is to build a winning attitude among younger swimmers and the successes at the high school level will follow. The Warriors felt that change began this season.

Portage finished top 10 in a pair of events and coach Jeff Melby said his swimmers had personal bests in roughly 80 percent of their races as Portage finished seventh out of seven teams with 80.5 points at the Badger North Conference Championships on Friday at Waunakee High School.

DeForest won the meet with 530 points, 108 points better than second place Sauk Prairie. Lodi took sixth with 98 points.

The top finishers at the meet included Portage's 200-yard medley relay A team of Erika Scharenbroch, Danae Ruhland, Devin Nelson and Kaitlen Watson, which finished 10th with a time of 2 minutes, 13.74 seconds. Ruhland was the Warriors top-placing individual, taking 10th in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:35.23.

"We had some good times - at least 80 percent had their best times," Jeff Melby said. "For the meet, though, I think Michaleen Melby, Danae Ruhland, Erika Scharenbroch and Melissa Plaster - who happen to all be juniors - had outstanding meets.

"The other nice thing to see is all these younger swimmers; our second relays are doing much better, which shows we're getting better depth. ... Some of those younger swimmers are really coming along."

Despite the personal bests and moral victories, Portage remains out of position to seriously compete - individually or as a team - for conference titles or success in the WIAA postseason. The Warriors open the postseason on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Division 2 Baraboo Sectional.

But it's that situation which is arguably where the Warriors have progressed the most this season.

"I see a big turnaround with all the new girls that we got, they're just improving so much," Ruhland said. "Since the youth team has started we've had a lot more girls who are actually involved and want to improve, not just to have a high school sport.

"This year we've had a great group of girls, over half of them are new, first year. And just spirit-wise, everybody's always cheering for each other. ... They never get down on themselves, so that's what I like to see."

Despite viewing the program on an upward climb, Ruhland and Melby both agreed the ability to compete with the conference's - or region's - best teams and swimmers is still several years away.

"With swimming, the emphasis is really on those younger swimmers, when they start out in that (youth) program. When they starting getting that experience and getting to high school with that experience, that's just key," Melby said. "I love the girls that come out in high school that haven't had (youth experience), because they improve a lot as well. But to really get to that level that we want to be at, we have to have that core group of younger swimmers.

"And that's what will make it exciting in the next couple years."

BADGER NORTH CONFERENCE MEET

at Waunakee High School

TEAM SCORES - 1, DeForest 530.5; 2, Sauk Prairie 422; 3, Waunakee 394; 4, Baraboo 364; 5, River Valley 244; 6, Lodi 98; 7, Portage 80.5.

PORTAGE RESULTS: 200 medley relay - 10, Portage A (Erika Scharenbroch, Danae Ruhland, Devin Nelson, Kaitlen Watson) 2:13.74; 13, Portage B (Michaleen Melby, Mariah Colburn, Keehlin Peterson, Alanna Stapleton) 2:25.38. 200 freestyle - 17, Abbie Korsh 2:29.45; 19, Stapleton 2:34.05. 200 IM - 10, Ruhland 2:35.23; 15, Colburn 3:01.72. 50 freestyle - 15, Nelson 28.3; 17, Watson 29.09; 18, Melissa Plaster 30.38. 20, Peterson 31.63. 23, Kaelyn Ahola 34.27. 25, Katie Stowell 34.72; 26, Kasey Jansen 35.26; 27, Madeline Boll 35.46. 100 freestyle - 14, Nelson 1:02.18; 16, Watson 1:04.05; 22, Peterson 1:11.32; Ahola 1:16.43. 500 freestyle - 16, Korish 6:41.28. 19, Stapleton 7:10.73. 200 freestyle relay - 11, Portage A (Nelson, Watson, Melby, Ruhland) 1:56.2; 13, Portage B (Plaster, Scharenbroch, Korish, Ahola) 2:04.56. 100 backstroke - 17, Melby 1:17.23; 18, Scharenbroch 1:18.74. 100 breaststroke - 14, Ruhland 1:22.32; 17, Colburn 1:27.91; 19, Steck 1:44.93. 400 freestyle relay - 11, Portage A (Melby, Korish, Scharenbroch, Peterson) 4:44.33; 13, Portage B (Plaster, Stapleton, Ahola, Colburn) 5:01.24.