Barrington takes second in relay meet
Barrington’s boys swimming team took second place in the Red Division of the relay meet it hosted Saturday, finishing with 342 points.
Naperville Central (382) won the division. Taking third was Stevenson (319) and fourth was Lake Forest (285).
Barringon had victories from Colin O’Leary, Colin Cross, Adam Fish and John Lagoni in the frosh-soph 200 medley relay (1:42.84); from Sebastian Piekarski, Fish, Will Hobbs and Sam Miseyka in the 200 free relay (1:29.82), from Brandon Baranowski, Nicholas Cogswell and Chase Lesniak in the 300 back relay (2:43.4) and from O’Leary, Hobbs, Fish and Lagoni in the frosh-soph 200 free relay.
Evanston won the meet’s White Division with 374 points, topping Libertyville (341), Lyons (332), Lake Park (305) Fremd (288) and Rockford Guilford (182).
Among the event winners for Libertyville was the 200 free relay of Matt Harrington, Bobby Snader, Justin Fu and Atticus Rush (1:28.59).
Fremd had the top frosh-soph 200 medley relay as Joey Carlisle, Nick Seroni, Joe Mayer and Nick Nevins won in 1:49.91.
At Elk Grove: Prospect took top team honors in the relay meet hosted by Rolling Meadows, winning with 158 points to better Hersey (140), Cary-Grove (132), Buffalo Grove (128), Lane Tech (124) and Rolling Meadows (116).
That showing for the host Mustangs completed a weekend which saw the program continue to make impressive gains. Their 116 points more than triples their output against the same teams in the same meet a year ago.
And on Friday night, Rolling Meadows lost a 98-88 decision to an excellent Wheeling team in an MSL East dual. Discounting a 10-point deficit in diving, the Mustangs actually tied the Wildcats in points generated from the swimming events.
In the dual against Wheeling, junior Jake Barson won the 100-yard breastroke in 1:02.01, and supplied a couple of 1:01 splits on relay legs Saturday.
More noteworthy Meadows efforts came from sophomore Kuba Debkowski, who went 22.9 in the 50 free on Saturday, and from freshman Filip Pancerz, who has been 58-flat in the 100 fly a couple of times and turned in a 57 relay split in the 100 back with a start off the blocks.
According to coach Monika Chiappetta, the overall approach her team is taking is what’s making the difference.
“I’ve had the joy of coaching some really talented swimmers, but it’s a little different this year,” she said. “These guys, they want to be hurting in practice so they can say, ‘OK, that’s done, and I did what I could today.’ They’re working their butts off, and the best part is it’s paying off.”