Schauble's return to Palatine triumphant

You'll have to forgive John Schauble if he looked a bit tired Friday evening.

He had been up most of the previous night pondering his return as coach of the Palatine boys swimming and diving team.

See, the last time he coached the Pirates was 1990. Since then, he served as Aquatics Director and physical education teacher at Stevenson, where he founded the Patriot Aquatic Club.

But life is often cyclical, and there was Schauble on deck at the Palatine pool Friday, watching with a satisfaction as his charges roared to a convincing 118-67 victory over Buffalo Grove in a Mid-Suburban League crossover meet.

"I was worried about meet management, I was worried about everything working right," Schauble said of his Thursday night bout with insomnia. "I wasn't worried about how the guys were going to do, because they've been working extremely hard. I was very confident that way, and I think a lot of it was I was just really excited to be back in swimming."

"I'm still running on adrenaline," he said, before adding, "I can see we have a lot of work to do."

But coach, your team took first place in all 12 events and occupied first and second place in five of them. Really?

"We still have to compete against Barrington and Fremd, and we still have some guys who have to go to the state meet and compete," he said. "It's a long, long season, and the first meet is kind of a test to see where you're at, and I think the guys performed very well, because we've done a lot of yards in the last couple of weeks. They're working very, very hard."

Multiple individual race winners for the Pirates included sophomore Alex Bartosik (200 IM, 100 breast), senior Jacob Baran (50 free, 100 free) and Jacob Klein (200 free, 400 free). Baran was involved in perhaps the tightest race of the evening in the 50 free, winning with a time of 26.15 and edging Buffalo Grove's Mark Poirier (26.41) and his own teammate, Jordan Kalina (26.60). After the mid-meet break, Kalina came back to win the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:03.91; Poirier again finished second at 1:11.79.

The next event was the 100 free, and it was another close race for Baran, who won in 57.06 and beat junior teammate Marcus Carter-Buckman by four-tenths of a second.

Carter-Buckman had better luck in the relay events, leading his team to victory all three times, while Baran (400 medley relay), Bartosik (200 free and 400 free relays) and Klein (400 free relay) each contributed to those efforts.

"We came in really excited," Carter-Buckman said. "Of course, we wanted to win, but we're looking for speed and endurance and I think we really showed that today. I tried to put the mentality in that we're going to get first, because if you believe, you can achieve. I'm pretty proud of my team today."

Across the pool, first-year Buffalo Grove coach Jeff Skalon was pleased with the efforts of his team, which boasts 52 members, thanks in part to the school's brand-new pool.

"We're just excited to have the season get underway," Skalon said. "It's exciting for our program, we've got a lot of members, we've got a lot of youth and I think they were nervous and as a coach, you want to show confidence in them that that they can handle things.

"They've been working hard all week in practice, so our bigger picture isn't just one meet. The big picture is we want to get to state, and do well in sectionals and conference."

There were plenty of positives for the Bison. Along with Poirier's second-place finishes, Sean Trinchere took second in the 100 backstroke, checking in with a time of 1:12.36 that fell just short of Palatine junior Alex Adame (1:12.28). Trinchere also helped his 200 medley relay and 400 free relay teams to second-place finishes. Divers Jack Delattre, Matt Misch and Tony Cullum finished second, third and fourth, respectively, behind winner Dylan Wilken of Palatine (201.80 points). Plus, Buffalo Grove won the Freshman-Sophomore meet 101-76.

Trinchere said the new pool is already paying dividends, the most important of which is no more traveling to Wheeling for late evening practices.

"That is the perfect foundation for building our team right now," he said. "We have a whole bunch of freshmen on the team because of the new pool. They're so excited about swimming in the new pool and because we've got eight lanes, we can spread out, and get even more intense practices in and be more specialized in our strokes."

Hersey d. Schaumburg: Paul Kim and Michael Petro won two races each to lead the visiting Huskies in a 116-70 decision.

Kim won the 50-meter free (25.90) and 100 free (58.34), while Petro was tops in the 200 IM (2:17.48) and 100 fly (101.56).

Conant d. Elk Grove: Jacob Lawson paced a 1-2-3 finish in favor the visiting Cougars, who claimed a 112-70 decision.

Fremd d. Prospect: The host Viking delivered an impressive performance, getting 1-2 finishes in both freestyle relays to claim a decisive divisional crossover victory.

Barrington d. Rolling Meadows: The host Broncos turned back a much-improved Mustangs team 110-76.

Winners for the Broncos included Johnny Lagoni (200 free, 1:48.97) in a tight race with Meadows freshman Josh Dellorto (1:49.23) plus Colin O'Leary (100 back) and Colin Cross (100 breast).

Meadows' Kuba Debkowski won the 50 free (22.7), 100 free (52.03) and Jake Barson won the 200 IM (2:06.11).