When Al Nennig was about 10 years old, he noticed something about the swim program at Grafton that still stands: Eric Mueller is the only boy from the school to win a state championship.

Nennig had older sisters on the Grafton swim team, so he would attend their meets.

"I've always been looking up at Grafton's record board and I saw his (Mueller's) time in the breaststroke; it looked really fast," Nennig said.

"I was always curious. I looked at psych sheets and the state program and saw his name, and realized he's the only one from Grafton to win a state event."

Mueller won the 100-yard breaststroke in the 1992 and '93 state meets.

Nennig is not only hoping to be the second state champion from Grafton, he's also gunning to be the first boy to win two state events in the same season.

"It'd be a really cool experience and I'd be more than happy," said Nennig, a junior. "Words couldn't even describe how happy I'd feel about that.

"I'm just really motivated to know I could be the only one at our school to do that. It'd show me all my hard work really paid off. That's always a good feeling."

Nennig is seeded first in the breaststroke and the 50 freestyle at the Division 2 state meet Friday in Madison.

"It's a very exciting feeling," Nennig said. "There's lots of motivation knowing I have two chances, two cracks at . . . first places at state. I'm feeling really good going into the meet. We'll see what I can do from there."

Nennig learned last year, however, that being seeded first means little at state.

He was the top seed in the breaststroke but finished second to McFarland's Jake Mandli.

"I took it out really fast and felt really good," Nennig said. "I nailed all the turns in the beginning. It came to the third turn; I didn't mess up but I didn't hold my underwater (pullout). . . . "It was the race of my life."

Mandli not only returns to state - he is seeded third in the event - but he's the only one to beat Nennig in an individual race this season. It happened in the breaststroke at the Small School State meet a few weeks ago.

"It's going to come down to the wire," Nennig said. "It'll probably be the race of the meet, I believe."

Nennig finished fifth at state in the 50 free last season after switching from the 100 backstroke (fifth at state) and the 200 individual medley (sixth place) as a freshman.

"(The 50) was something that ended up being a little surprising to him," Grafton coach Mark Minz said. "He never thought of himself as a sprinter until he tried it at a bigger meet last year and kind of rolled with it to state. He's got a real competitive mind-set.

"In the breaststroke, he got the mechanics maybe he didn't have as a freshman. He worked pretty hard at it. He's very strong."

Nennig, a starting right fielder the last two seasons on the varsity baseball team, already has six school records to his name.

He's competed at state before and has watched sisters Bailey (500 free) and Sadie (100 back) also claim state titles.

Nonetheless, there have been some nerves this week.

"If you're not nervous, that's not really a good thing," Nennig said. "You've got to be nervous to know how fast you can go.

"I'm nervous, but I also know I have the ability to achieve what I wanted to in life."