Fremd soaks up win over Barrington
Fremd was in its element — literally — on Friday night.
Moments after finishing a breathtaking 96-90 victory over visiting Barrington, the team and coaching staff returned to the chlorine for an impromptu celebration in their home waters, and who could blame them? They'd just beaten a fine team in a meet with plenty at stake, including supremacy in the Mid-Suburban League's West Division.
“Everybody knew this was going to be a close meet,” said first-year Fremd coach Kristen Newby. “Turns out it couldn't have been much closer.”
The outcome came down to the last race, where Fremd came through with flying colors. The top 400-meter freestyle relay of Dennis Kostidis, Jeff Freund, Matthew Zhou and Dustin Anderson won comfortably in 3:42.62, and Fremd's second relay in the event also picked up third place for a little extra emphasis.
“It feels pretty extraordinary,” said Anderson, a senior team captain. “It's just extremely gratifying. Everybody in the building was into the meet from beginning to end — you know, sometimes during the distance freestyle, you see people's attention wandering, but not today. This was special. Every race was big.”
Adding to the drama were some dramatic swings within those races. Fremd got a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 IM from Kostidis, Zhou and Ray Scheid.
Anderson touched out Barrington's Matt Lee in the 50 free by a tenth of a second.
Nolan Presmyk and Blaine Stahl delivered a 1-2 punch for Barrington in diving.
Barrington got a 1-2 finish from Tommy Clement and Alex Anderson in the 100 back, and the Broncos' Connor Kobida, flanked by Fremd's Scheid and Ilya Skvortsov, won the 100 breast to set the stage for the decisive relay.
Another Fremd captain, Jeff Freund, won both the 200 free and the 100 fly. His versatility was especially important because Newby didn't need to use him in his best event, the 400 free, where the Vikes nevertheless picked up a 1-2 finish from sophomores Kostidis and Nick Pappas.
“Coach Newby did a great job of using swimmers in places they could hurt our lineup,” said Barrington coach John Valentine. “Of course we're disappointed by the loss, but I'm not at all disappointed with where we are as a team.
“We have some things we need to work on, and a meet like this against such a quality opponent tends to make it a little more clear. I think some of our guys had their eyes opened up a little bit, and that's a good thing.”
Barrington was without senior standout Greg Alexander for reasons unrelated to swimming. He'll be available for today's New Trier Relays, and for the upcoming conference, sectional and state meets.
No one can dispute this: Fremd answered the challenge on Friday night.
When asked how much he had to explain the importance of the meet to Fremd's younger swimmers beforehand, Freund put it this way: “Not much, to be honest. The energy was already there.”
Fremd improved to 5-0 in Mid-Suburban League duals.
“Our guys were ready,” said Newby, “and I'm really proud of everybody. Dustin and Jeff are real important to our team, but it can't be just Dustin and Jeff. It takes everybody, and everybody understood that.”
Prospect d. Buffalo Grove: The host Knights used 1-2 finishes from Matthew Rendino and Decoda Selzer in the 50 and 100 freestyles to edge the Bison 94-92. Andrew Younger was a double individual winner for Prospect (200 free, 500 free).
Ian Rodriguez led the way for BG with wins in the 200 IM and 100 back.
Hoffman Estates d. Palatine: The visiting Hawks produced a victory in the 400-meter free relay to edge Palatine 94-92.
Sang W. Han won the 100 free and 100 back, Adam Pasnicki won the 200 and 400 freestyles for Hoffman Estates.
Palatine's individual winners included John Giuliano (100 fly), Robert Hank (50 free) and Dylan Weissmann (50 free).
Conant d. Schaumburg: The visiting Cougars rolled to a 129-56 victory and got a pair of individual wins from Jonathan Burke (500 free, 100 back).
Wheeling d. Rolling Meadows: Jaron Witt won a pair of races as the Wildcats earned an MSL East victory over host Rolling Meadows. Other Wheeling winners included Mike Boom, Nick Modlin and Dan Shriber; Artie Checchin won the 50 and 100 freestyles for Rolling Meadows.