Energy, outcome favors Fremd against Barrington

It was easy to spot Fremd boys swimming coach Kristen Newby Friday night.

She was the high-energy one with the big grin on the deck of her school's pool, as she seemingly pep-talked every member of her team as its Mid-Suburban League West showdown with visiting Barrington unfolded.

She had every right to be enthusiastic. As the meet wore on, she knew the score, literally and figuratively - her squad had a good chance to defeat the Broncos and in the process win the biggest dual of the young Mid-Suburban West season.

Newby was still all smiles when it was over, as the Vikings swam away with a 104-82 victory to head into the holiday break with perhaps an unexpected gift.

"We were the underdogs tonight," Newby said of her squad that improved to 3-0 in MSL duals. "We were not expected to win this meet, so when you fight that fuel and get them going, (the kids) are going to perform.

"They knew they had nothing to lose tonight, so they got out there and gave everything they had and more."

Beating the Broncos, who fell to 2-1 in league duals, was something Newby and her charges had set as a goal before the season got underway.

"When we set plans for the season, you've got to start crossing things off the list, and tonight was one of the things we crossed off the list, taking the dual meet against Barrington," she said.

"So as we cross that off the list, now we have to look further down that list - what can we do over the next couple of weeks to finalize our conference lineup a little bit more and see what we can do at the end of the season, because at the end of the season at the conference championship, it's a totally different meet."

Early on, it looked as if Barrington might be in the driver's seat all evening. The Broncos' 200-meter medley relay team of sophomore Colin O'Leary, junior Colin Cross, and sophomores John Lagoni and Mitchell Gavars won in 1:54.77, edging Fremd's foursome of sophomore Joey Carlisle, senior Austin Yurasek and juniors Dylan Assmann and Kenny Benjamin (1:55.51).

Lagoni followed up that performance by winning the 200 free in 2:03.62, more than 2 seconds ahead of the Vikings' Arnas Maciunas (2:05.80).

And then, Fremd turned on the jets.

Freshman Danny Konishi (2:23.86) and Assmann (2:24.25) finished first and second, respectively, in the 200 individual medley. After Yurasek won the 50 free, the divers took center stage, and Fremd cleaned up, with freshman Zach Mega (239.25 points) and Chase Jauch (217.05) taking the top two spots, while sophomore Ben Sammons finished fifth (156.50).

Assmann (1:02.86) and Konishi (1:04.43) then finished one-two in the 100 butterfly, with senior Roshan Rajan (57.66) and sophomore Nick Nevins (57.92) doing likewise in the next event, the 100 free, a race worth noting because Barrington sophomore Andrew Fish was a scratch due to illness.

That gave Fremd a 66-44 lead it would never relinquish, though Barrington made it interesting late. O'Leary won the 100 backstroke in 1:01.30, and Cross (1:10.67), senior Chase Lesniak (1:14.65) and sophomore Max Gersten (1:15.64) finished first, second and fourth, respectively in the 100 breaststroke.

"Fremd is always a tough meet," said Barrington coach John Valentine, himself a 1978 Fremd graduate. "They swam extremely well today. Our guys need to work on a few things, and that's probably what we'll take away from this, the things we need to tweak going into the conference meet.

"It's a wakeup call for our kids. Unless they give that consistent effort, they're not going to get the results they're hoping for, so that's probably the biggest lesson that we're going to take away this week … not only working on the little things, which we do consistently, but to understand that what you put into this sport is exactly what you get out of it."

Lagoni agreed.

"It's kind of a bummer, but this is just a learning lesson for us," he said. "I think we just need to work harder and get right back on that horse. Now we know what to look for and what our competition is doing."

Across the pool, Assmann and Konishi were beaming almost as much as their coach. Assmann said the ability to get off to a big start in the meet was crucial.

"Going into the meet, we knew the first half wasn't going to be our strong suit, so we really wanted to push that half, and that's what me and Danny did," he said. "On paper, our times compared to theirs in the front half weren't what we wanted them to be, so really wanted to outdo ourselves in the first half."

"We haven't (beaten Barrington) in four years," Konishi added. "We had a lot of motivation from ourselves and our teammates to pull through and win."

The next time the teams will lock horns will be on Valentine's Day at the MSL meet - at Barrington.