Hersey stays perfect, edges Rolling Meadows
Hersey remains undefeated in Mid-Suburban East boys swimming and diving — this time, by just about the slimmest of margins.
The Huskies won just enough close races to claim a 94-92 victory over Rolling Meadows at Olympic Pool in Arlington Heights on Thursday.
In a meet that featured loads of close finishes, several key outcomes went in favor of the Huskies.
The 200-yard medley relay of David Kuntz, Michael Buffa, Jack Carroll and Connor Reynolds finished in 1:45.32, just ahead of Rolling Meadows’ Filip Pancerz, Jake Barson, Tony Sarussi and Kuba Debkowski in 1:45.77.
Reynolds won the 50 freestyle in 23.52, just ahead of Debkowski’s 23.56.
And in the only 1-2-3 sweep of the meet, Hersey’s divers again reigned supreme as Riley Busche (187.40), Tucker Fenwick (152.55) and Angelo Tenerelli (139.50) held down the top spots. The Huskies have yet to be outscored by an MSL East foe on the boards.
“I’m really proud of my guys, to be able to get best times in a dual meet at Olympic,” said Rolling Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta. “For us, I think today was just a lesson that every guy really counts.”
Kuntz came up big for the Huskies, with victories in the 200 free (1:58.02) and 100 back (58.86).
Hersey’s Carroll, Eric Dieterich, Buffa and Reynolds won the 200 free relay in 1:35.60.
Meadows also had plenty of strong performances in the water.
Barson, a junior, won the 200 IM (2:10.23) and the 100 breast (1:04.10). His freshman teammate Kamil Halaj was second in the IM (in a lifetime-best 2:15.92) and third in the breast (1:12.22).
Debkowski won the 100 free in a season-best 51.64 — just one one-hundredth of a second faster than Reynolds — and split 22.6 on the anchor leg of the 200 free relay.
Pancerz took top honors in the 100 fly (58.04), just ahead of Carroll.
Rolling Meadows’ David Myers won the 500 free (5:27.45) and placed third in the 200 free (2:02.55), just ahead of teammate Joey Ure (2:00.84). And John Windhorst was third (5:37.68) in the 500 free for Meadows.
Among the top individual efforts for Meadows was Tony Sarussi’s 100 fly; he placed third but lopped some three seconds off his previous lifetime best, finishing in 1:00.81.
The Mustangs capped the meet with a 1-3 finish in the 400 free relay, as the top group of Debkowski, Ure, Barson and Pancerz finished in 3:36.00.
Hersey’s relay of Santiago Guerrero, Kristiyan Donov, Jake Hall and Kuntz ended up edging Meadows’ Ryan Smith, Bennett Cullen, Myers and Sarussi by four-tenths of a second for the crucial second-place points in the 400 free relay.
“The whole meet, all my boys were very into the scoring,” Chiappetta said. “They kept coming up to me, asking what the score was and what we needed to do in each event.
“In the 400 free relay, (Hersey coach Dick Mortensen) was waving a flag to get his guys going — it was crazy.”
Prospect, unbeaten so far in the MSL East, swim against Wheeling on Friday. The Knights and Huskies will then meet at Olympic next Thursday in the last of the season’s divisional duals.
Rolling Meadows competes on Saturday in the Downers Grove South Invite, where Chiappetta expects lots of great racing from teams such as Metea Valley and Naperville Central. The Mustangs then wrap up their conference duel schedule with a meet next Friday against Elk Grove, as both squads will be chasing team records in the pool they share.