Leave it to Evanston and New Trier to decide the winner of New Trier’s sectional during the final event, the 4×100-yard freestyle relay. Even more fitting, the Wildkits swimmers overcame a deficit of nearly a second and a half midway through the race to win the event by two-tenths of a second.
But as most fans know, total team points is nice–Evanston edging New Trier 294-280–but in the sectionals, it’s state qualifiers that matter most.
When all was said and done, defending state champ Evanston edged the host Trevians in all three relays and sent another six individuals to the state meet. Leading the charge for Evanston was senior Blake Wallace, who captured the 50 and 100 freestyle events and swam on both the 4×50 and 4×100 freestyle relays.
“[Facing New Trier] in the relays really helped,” said Evanston coach Kevin Auger of his team’s motivation. “Anytime you swim against a good team like New Trier, it helps to qualify your kids for the state meet.”
As for New Trier, the Trevians topped Evanston with nine individual qualifiers and will send its 4×50 and 4×100 freestyle relay teams to state as well. New Trier freshman James Dragon qualified for two events, winning the 500 freestyle and finishing third in the 200 individual medley.
Dan Rybalko of Niles West easily won the diving competition with a score of 499–nearly 80 points better than his closest competitor.
Jonathan Schoenberg.
Neuqua Valley sectional
Naperville Central captured firsts in 11 of 12 events and set three pool records while earning 17 total berths for the state finals at Evanston.
“They certainly did very well,” said Naperville Central coach Mike Adams, whose team piled up 325.5 points to breeze to the sectional title. “In fact, I don’t think there was anybody that did not have a good swim today.”
Runner-up Naperville North had 240.5 points and 10 qualifiers while third-place Neuqua Valley collected 239 points and has 11 individuals or relays bound for the state meet. All told, 50 state entries emerged from the 10-team sectional.
Naperville Central had double winners in seniors Jose Lopez-Lago (200-yard individual medley and 100 butterfly) and Jim Lullo (200 and 500 freestyle). Pool records were set by junior Pat Fleming in the 100 freestyle in 46.51 seconds and senior Billy Pearce with a victory in the 100 backstroke in 52.52 seconds.
The Redhawks also swept all three relays, including the 4×100 freestyle team of Fleming, Lopez-Lago, Lullo and Pearce, who finished in a pool-record 3:10.27.
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Neuqua Valley’s Eric Triebe prevented a Naperville Central sweep with his victory in the 100 breaststroke in 59.59 seconds.
Jack McCarthy.
In other sectionals:
Downers Grove North: Hinsdale Central qualified all three relay teams and eight individuals as the Red Devils qualified at least one swimmer in 11 of 12 events while winning eight events.
Scott Bobo, John Wheeler and Paul Sigufusson all qualified in two events for the Red Devils, who totaled 317 points. Lyons finished second with 218 points.
Fenwick: Last week St. Patrick swimmer Kamil Kulcyzcki lost feeling in the lower half of his body for about 30 minutes and had seven staples in the back of his head after being in a car accident.
Saturday he won the 50 freestyle, swam the backstroke on the winning medley relay and swam the anchor leg of the 4×50 freestyle relay as the Shamrocks amassed 286 points in winning the sectional. Two of St. Patrick’s relay teams and six individual swimmers qualified for the state meet.
Latin, which finished fifth overall, qualified in the 4×50 medley relay for the school’s first berth in a relay event.
Lake Forest: Matt Grevers was part of four record-breaking efforts for the host Scouts. Grevers set individual marks in the 50 and 100 freestyles and was on the 4×50 and 4×100 freestyle relay teams that broke pool records.
“It’s nice to have a big gun like Matt,” Lake Forest coach Lea Maurer said. “He’s very talented but humble and a great team player.”
Mundelein’s Ollie Scholes won the 100 butterfly, and qualified in the 200 freestyle and on the two freestyle relays.
Lincoln-Way East: Homewood-Flossmoor collected its sixth straight sectional title and 12th in school history, rolling past the field with 296.5 points. Bradley-Bourbonnais finished a distant second with 172 points.
Bradley’s Ben Swift and Evan Harper of Morris were the only swimmers to win two events.
St. Charles North: St. Charles East qualified a swimmer in every event except the 50 freestyle as the Saints rolled with 313 points.
Jim Brennan won two events for St. Charles East, which had at least two swimmers qualify for five events.
Vernon Hills: After getting beat by Stevenson at the Lake County meet and again at their own meet, Barrington’s swimmers stormed back to win the Vernon Hills sectional with 298.50 points, outdistancing Stevenson (260) and Fremd (238).
Barrington qualified swimmers in nine events and Brandon Williams won the diving to automatically qualify for next weekend’s state meet.