Elkhorn Area High School’s Hunter Johnson earned Southern Lakes Conference Swimmer of the Year honors March 5 when the conference’s schools met at the Cotton Exchange in Waterford for the Winter Sports Coaches Banquet.
It is one of many postseason accolades for Johnson and the Elks. The team met Feb. 26 at the Monte Carlo Room in Elkhorn and celebrated a fine season.
The Elks finished their season with the best night in program history Feb. 15 at the WIAA Division 2 State Boys Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium in Madison. The Elks finished third in Division 2.
Hunter Johnson also earned First Team All-SLC honors and was named the Elks’ Most Valuable Player.
Riley Buchheit and Willy Pinnow shared the Most Improved award. Pinnow also earned All-SLC First Team honors. Alex Johnson and Lucas Koepke also earned First Team All-SLC honors.
Brevin Kruse earned All-SLC First Team honors and is the recipient of this year’s Elk Award, which honors coachability, poise, character, work ethic, dependability, reliability, determination and putting the team ahead of the individual.
Austin Boatman and Justin Pflanzer each earned All-SLC Conference Honorable Mention honors.
Derek Gauger and Danny Bush earned All-SLC First Team honors.
Zach Pflanzer was named the Elks’ Rookie of the Year and Alex Haacker was named Most Coachable.
Brevin Kruse earned Academic All-American honors in swimming after maintaining better than a 3.8 grade point average for four years.
Kruse also earned Academic All-State honors, as did Gauger.
Bush, Gauger, Hunter Johnson, Koepke and Pinnow earned All-State honors in swimming.
Mark Ambrose, Buchheit and RJ Moos each earned the Perfect Attendance award.
Jayden Nunn and Jonathan Heck each earned the 1,350 Award, which is awarded to those who swim each stroke in competition.
Hunter Johnson and Alex Johnson and Justin Pflanzer were honored for serving as team captains, and Rachel Gottschalk, Alliah North and Alexis Schliepp were honored for serving as the swim team managers.
