OAK PARK — For the past 11 years, Oak Park-River Forest has swam in Fenwick’s wake at the sectional meet hosted by the Friars.
Fenwick won 10 sectional titles and finished ahead of the Huskies the other year.
That streak of dominance came to an end on Saturday as OPRF put together a perfect meet, scoring 302 points to finish ahead of Fenwick (291), St. Patrick (219) and seven other teams.
“I think if you go into the meet with the goal of getting as many guys as you can to the state meet and you come out as the champion, it just puts the icing on the cake, especially when you beat your rival,” Huskies’ coach Clyde Lundgren said. “We really get up for the meet and we love this rivalry.”
Fenwick wound up advancing more entries to state — eight compared to OPRF’s five — and that made the championship even more extraordinary.
“It’s a special thing for the boys because everyone helped score points for the win, even if it was sixth-place points,” said Lundgren, who was named sectional coach of the year. “Everyone could hold their heads up high when they hoisted that plaque.”
One of the most surprising performances came from OPRF sophomore Thomas Wolfe, who won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 2.56 seconds. He went into the race seeded third with a time of 2:09.29, almost three seconds slower than Jakub Mysliwiec of Reavis.
Wolfe led the race wire-to-wire.
“I can usually drop a few seconds when I taper, but that was almost seven seconds so I wasn’t expecting that but I’m really happy,” Wolfe said. “Making state was a big surprise. But I was smooth in the first 50 and then backstroke is one of my strong points. After the backstroke I saw someone behind me in my periphery and I thought maybe I’m in the lead. I just kept trying to go fast.”
He said Saturday’s sectional was the biggest meet he’s ever raced. That will change when he gets to New Trier on Friday for the preliminaries of the state finals.
“I’ll try to rehearse the same way I did for this week,” Wolfe said. “For me it will definitely be an experience thing. I’ve never been in a meet that big and I’m going to have a lot of nerves. I’ll try to control them and just have fun and get that experience for junior and senior year so I know what it’s like to compete at such a high level.”
In another surprise, OPRF senior Jack Girardot won the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.3. He came in seeded fourth with a 58.43.
“It was just one of those swims where you’re like, ‘Did you just do that?’ ” Lundgren said. “He was almost not on our sectional team. He’s had a great season and just seemed to peak at the right time.”
Also advancing to state for the Huskies were junior Josh Fluharty in the 50 freestyle (2nd, 21.72) and senior Will McNeil in the 50 freestyle (3rd, 21.78), as well as the 400 free relay of Wolfe, Fluharty, freshman Max Razzino and senior Riley Silber (1st, 3:13.97).
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“It was pretty exciting to make it to state,” McNeil said. “I think I swam as well as I could and it’s pretty cool that I’m fast enough to go (as an individual).”
Rob Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press