Prospect clears key MSL East test against Hersey

Depth matters in team swimming. A lot.

The Hersey boys swim team is building it. Prospect already has it, which was the main reason it prevailed 106.5-79.5 in Friday's Mid-Suburban East dual-meet clash at Wheeling.

The Knights, coming off a loss to Fremd last week and a second-place finish Wednesday at the St. Viator Invitational, took two of the top three places in nine of 12 events Friday, and finished first and second in four of them.

Prospect needed that depth, too, as it held off a memorable performance by Hersey freshman Michael Petro, who broke the school record by 2 seconds in winning the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:59.62. He nearly broke another record in winning the 100 butterfly in 52.73 seconds, missing out by a tenth of a second.

"(Depth) is everything," Prospect coach Alfonso Lopez said. "We talk about it as a team. When we go into dual meets we say, 'Look, the top guys are going to do their job.' It's always the two-three guys, and it's been something that we've pounded into these guys' heads since they were freshmen, so they know every race is critical."

Prospect's depth showed early, as its 200 medley relay teams finished one-two to start the meet, as the winning foursome of Sam Gabriel, Isaac Ginnodo, Michael Morikado and Tyler Culliton prevailed with a time of 1:44.06. Nick Partipilo (1:54.89) and Morikado (1:55.90) repeated that performance in the second event, the 200 free.

"We knew Hersey had a strong meet last week, so we had a good week of practice. We saw how fast Fremd could be and that really motivated us to push ourselves this past week," said Morikado, who finished second to Petro in the 100 butterfly (55.52 seconds) and led off Prospect's second-place finishing 200 free relay (1:33.72), which got nudged by Hersey by .15 of a second.

Ginnodo (1:07.58) and Kosinski (1:08.80) finished first and second in the 100 breaststroke, while Anthony Liva (215.50 points) and Stephen Schmit (201.95) did the same in the diving competition.

But it was the proliferation of second- and third-place finishes that won the day for Prospect, like Gabriel (2:09.28) and Alex Morikado (2:12.79) in the 200 IM, and Culliton (24.44) and Nick Tuczak (24.57) in the very next event, the 50 free. Gabriel won the 100 backstroke in 55.61, with teammate Ryan Lakner taking third in 58.33.

What Hersey lacks in depth, it makes up in star power. Take Petro, for instance.

He took an early lead in the 200 IM and pulled away to win the event by half a pool length. Later, after the 10-minute mid-meet break, he won the 100 butterfly by three lengths over Michael Morikado.

So what was it like for Petro to break a school record?

"It's a great accomplishment to have this early in the season," he said. "Behind the block, in my mind, I'm thinking, 'I just want to swim fast.' "

But he also was well aware of what's missing for his team, at least this at this juncture of the season.

"We need to get more depth," he said, adding, "It's early in the season and we're still developing as a team."

His coach, Dick Mortensen, liked what he saw, despite the fact that the Huskies fell to 2-1 in dual meets this season.

"I told the guys, this may be a blessing in disguise in that now it allows us to not really focus on the East necessarily, but the big picture of sectionals and state," he said. "We've implemented a new weight training program with the guys, so we're doing weights two days a week and swimming two days a week in the morning, and it's really beaten them up, with that final goal of getting state qualifiers."

Mortensen was especially pleased with Petro's efforts, whom he inherited from Alligator Aquatics in Arlington Heights.

"He's the last in a long line of really good swimming kids," he said. "We talk about his goals and one of his goals is to not worry, he knows there won't be many people around him, 'I may be in front, but there's somebody I can catch.' He'll be a great swimmer."

Another top performer for Hersey on Friday was Paul Kim, who won the 50 free in 22.85, and the 100 free in 50.37, and led the Huskies to victory in the 200 free relay (1:33.57) and the 400 free relay (3:28.58).

Depth is probably not that far off for Hersey - the Huskies won the freshman-sophomore meet 90-88.