Garvy finishing Duke career with a flourish

Nick Garvy faces these next two weeks with a mixture of nostalgia and excited anticipation.

That type of balance might be expected from a guy who majors in both anthropology and marketing-management.

A Benet graduate and a senior swimmer at Duke University, Garvy’s next meet will be his last, unless he returns to the pool later in life.

His aim is to go out with a splash, March 24-26 at the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota.

“It’s very exciting,” said the 22-year-old Garvy. “It’s been something I’ve been working for all my college career, and to accomplish it my senior year is just amazing.”

Garvy has the 21st best collegiate time in the nation in the 50 freestyle, with a time of 19.68 seconds. He recorded that breaking his own school record during a seventh-place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference meet.

Invited to participate at the NCAAs in the 50 freestyle, Garvy also will swim in two other races based on provisional qualifying times: the 100 butterfly, where he’s got the nation’s 28th fastest time at 46.94, and in the 100 free, 62nd at 43.78.

“I would like to get in the top 16 (in the 50), which qualifies me for All-American,” said Garvy, who earned three all-state medals in 2006 and 2007 swimming for Benet. “That’s kind of my goal in all of my events that I swim next week. If I don’t I’m still happy that I’m getting to compete in the national championship meet.”

Garvy swam at the University of Minnesota one summer while competing with the Maverick Swim Club, out of Naperville. He’ll return accompanied by Duke’s defending national diving champion Nick McCrory to show him the ropes.

“It’s going to be good having him there, but I’m just excited because there hasn’t been a male swimmer from Duke to go to the national championship in swimming in decades,” Garvy said.

Just to be recruited by Duke was great, he said. Now, some four years later, he’s nearing the end in the pool and on his double major. He liked the balance of liberal arts and business and is in the job interview process.

Garvy calls this period in his athletic career nostalgic and bittersweet. After dedicating thousands of hours to swim thousands of yards, he sees the finish line. Maybe some day he’ll return on the master’s circuit, but not without first trying out golf or tennis, he said.

“Right now, when I’m done I just want to focus on my next chapter in my life, and my career and everything,” he said.

Garvy helped Duke ascend in the ACC standings over his college career, but he never expected to advance this far individually.

“I had no idea,” he said. “I didn’t even know I was going to be in the sport all four years, but here I am in my senior year going to the national championship meet. It’s a dream come true. I had no idea I’d be competing at this level.”

Raiders of the long arc

Naperville North senior guard Nick Buege showcased a sweet outside shot this season.

Jon Mengel was a 6-foot-4 senior forward who did damage in the paint for the Huskies.

Both have advanced to Thursday’s preliminaries of the Class 4A Three-Point Showdown at Carver Arena in Peoria, a prelude to the boys basketball state finals on Friday and Saturday.

Joining them in the 4A competition will be 6-foot-6 senior Cody Kitahata of Glenbard East, which has bigger fish to fry in the state semifinals against Simeon.

In Class 3A the field includes another inside-outside combo, Glenbard South 6-6 junior forward Dusko Despot and Wheaton Academy 6-1 sophomore guard Collin Roy.

In last week’s 2A field Timothy Christian 6-2 senior forward Troy Ellens qualified into the preliminaries and made 7 of 15 shots.

Leatherneck excitement

Naperville North athletic director Doug Smith, a Western Illinois University alumnus, has secured for a second straight year a WIU Leathernecks spring football scrimmage at the Huskies’ Harshbarger-Welzel Stadium, at 2 p.m. April 9.

Smith is excited about the Leathernecks, who after going 1-10 in 2009 improved to 8-5 last season. That one-year turnaround set the standard not just at Western Illinois but for the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Leathernecks advanced to the second round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, and while they need to replace 17 seniors, Smith likes what returns.

“Pretty much their whole defense is coming back,” he said.

Western’s free-of-charge April 9 scrimmage at Naperville North offers the return of local players Dwight Harris of Waubonsie Valley, Alie Walker (Neuqua Valley) and Jason Callahan (Glenbard East), plus former Driscoll players Tim Franken and Kevin Palermo. Palermo, an incoming senior linebacker, earned a 2010 “Coaches Appreciation” award from Leathernecks head coach Mark Hendrickson.

Smith noted that after the scrimmage there will be a Western Illinois alumni gathering at the Ballydoyle Irish Pub in Aurora, owned in part by a Leatherneck alum.

“We’re all over,” Smith said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com