Miseyka, Barrington staying focused

By itself, Sam Miseyka’s 100-yard breaststroke time on Saturday wasn’t so spectacular.

But dig into the 1:02.98 time a bit, and it looks more than just decent. It was the senior’s best time of the year. It was 1 second faster than he was at this point a year ago, when he qualified for the state meet in the event.

Oh yes, and that time was good enough to win the 100 breaststroke title in a very competitive St. Charles North Invitational field.

“Going a 1:02 now, I’m pretty happy with that,” Miseyka said.

Even this late in the season, teams have not backed off their training, and that will continue. None of the top swimmers bettered their season best times on Saturday, which is a sign of exhaustion more than a lack of effort.

“Since it’s the core, right now, to our training season, everyone’s typically adding time,” Miseyka said. “We’re about to start tapering, so that’s going to get really interesting.”

Barrington finished third in the meet behind Normal U-High and Libertyville, both state powers this season. Miseyka was the Broncos’ only event champion. He also finished second in the 50 freestyle. Colin O’Leary was second in the 100 backstroke and third in the 100 butterfly.

“Based on where we are with our training regimen — we’re starting our third cycle of training — I’m really happy with how we did,” Barrington coach John Valentine said. “We’re not expecting best times at this meet. What we’re looking for is incremental improvement with every meet.”

This late in the season, top athletes are beginning to rise, even with the difficult training regimens they are putting themselves through. Miseyka enjoyed the diverse competitive group at St. Charles North.

“It really does give an idea, this meet specifically, at who you will be facing at state,” Miseyka said. “You see what the events are going to look like, how the events are going to stack up. It’s an eye-opener.”

Valentine said he likes the position his team finds itself in as the the regular season reaches its final weeks. With two weeks left before the Mid-Suburban League conference meet and the start of “Championship Season,” the number of questions remaining to be answered for any high school swim team are limited. Barrington is no different than most, however, in that there are still a few things to be decided.

“We’re still making some changes to our relays,” Miseyka said. “We had one kid, Colin Cross, who did well today and hopefully we’re going to see a lot of kids step up.”

Valentine said the nature of St. Charles North’s invitational, with expanded entries per event for each team, allows coaches to assess their teams one final time in an invitational.

“That’s one of the best things about this meet for us,” Valentine said. “It allows us to make those final tweaks for our relays going into the varsity conference meet as well as sectionals. We’re always juggling to try to see the best way to set the team heading into those meets.

— Darryl Mellema

at Hinsdale Central: New Trier, Hinsdale Central and Whitney Young claimed the top three spots in Saturday’s Red Devil Invitational hosted by Hinsdale Central.

The Trevians’ Jeff Park won the 200-yard IM (1:53.31) and tied with Mundelein’s Ayrton Kasemets for the top finish in the 100 breaststroke (58.75). Kasemets was second in the IM in 1:59.80.

Whitney Young’s Mossimo Chavez won the 50 free (21.73), and New Trier’s Connor Fotsch won the 100 free (48.18).

Palatine, which finished sixth, had its top finish from freshman Alex Bartosik, who took fifth in the 200 IM (2:06.89).

Hinsdale Central’s Franco Reyes won the 100-yard butterfly in 50.48.

Warren’s top efforts were fifth-place finishes from Tanner Nash in the 100 back (58.72) and from Austin Salisbury in the 100 fly (55.81).

at Downers Grove North: Naperville Central, Metea Valley and Lyons Township took the top three team finishes, and Rolling Meadows placed fourth.

“We’ve been coming to this meet forever, and that’s by far our best finish,” said Rolling Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta. “To have that many medal-winners, it’s just another example of how far we’ve come.”

The Mustangs’ top individual finish came from junior Jake Barson, who was third in the 100 breast (1:02.9). He also delivered a lifetime best in the 200 IM (sixth place, 2:09.4).

Other notable efforts came from freshman Filip Pancerz in the 100 free (4th, 51.48) and 100 back (7th, 59.94) and Kuba Debkowski in the 50 free (6th, 23.32).