St. Charles East, North swim to a rare tie

While always a possibility, the reality is there are very few ties in swimming dual meets. But when St. Charles North and St. Charles East completed the 15th boys swimming dual meet against each other on Tuesday, both the visiting North Stars and host Saints had 93 points.

"I guess it's kind of fitting," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "Both teams are kind of the same."

With the team scores close throughout the meet, every swim mattered. Each team had some unexpected success and each suffered loss of points from a disqualification. In the end, the meet boiled down to the 400-yard freestyle relay. The North Stars won and finished fourth with their top relays while the Saints finished second and third - and the teams finished tied for the first time in 15 meetings.

"I haven't seen a tie in a long time," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "It was fun. It was a good meet."

For much of its history, this rivalry has tilted toward St. Charles North, which has a 13-1-1 record against its crosstown rival. In order to forge a tie, the North Stars had to recover from a 15-point deficit from the first third of the meet.

The Saints got an early boost from the 200-yard medley relay of John Tarpey, Nick Milosch. Mitch Milosch and John Cranfill, which swam 1:40.34.

"We looked good in that medley relay," Cabel said. "That was a bit of a shocker. On paper, they didn't look that good going in. But for those guys, it was all about team effort, getting together, having great spirit and it got us into the meet."

The Saints' surge continued through diving, which Andrew Lewarchick won by 1 point over St. Charles North's Mike Burke. Lewarchick just started diving this season, and said Burke was a mentor during club swim season.

"I think I dove well," Lewarchick said. "I may not have done as well as I expected, but I'm happy with myself. (Burke) kind of showed me the ropes. I knew what I was getting into coming into this meet. I just wanted to do as well as I could."

For Lewarchick, Tuesday's victory came three days after his win in the St. Charles East College Events Invitational.

"Kudos to both of them," Cabel said of the Lewarchick-Burke competition. "(Lewarchick) had poise tonight. He looked like he'd been diving forever. He just keeps getting better."

Burke is having a strong season as well this year, which added excitement to the diving portion of the meet.

"He went to the New Trier Invite and got top 8 and went to another invite and got top 10," Rooney said. "He's going to be really good here in the end, and that's a positive thing for us."

Starting with a victory by Ben Sherman in the 100 freestyle, St. Charles North began to close the gap.

"We definitely had a rocky start," Sherman said. "But we picked ourselves up by our boot straps, so to speak, and we really got involved in the meet. We got excited with the meet and we're very excited with the outcome."

Sherman swam legs on both North Stars freestyle relays and both those relays won. The 200 freestyle relay was composed of Stephen Hutchinson, Chris Stanek, Sherman and Ryan Helfers while the 400 freestyle relay's swimmers were Joe Myhre, Sherman, Nathan Bawolek and Caymus Cairns.

"We had to move some kids around," Rooney said. "We didn't swim a championship lineup. The 200 relay was half-loaded and the 400 relay was half-loaded and the kids responded who we put into it."

St. Charles East had plenty of strong swims as well. Nick Boryk swam 4:59.14 and won the 500 freestyle by 11 seconds. Mitch Milosch won the 100 butterfly. And in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay, the key performance came from the school's "B" relay of John Ortlund, Harrison Hollman, Kyle Lewarchick and Kyle Chapko, which finished third ahead of St. Charles North's "B" relay.

"This meet brings out the best in us and I thought we had a shot at the end," Cabel said. "Both teams had errors that got in the way a little bit, but they both canceled each other out. There was great spirit in our team to stay in it."

Tuesday's meet was originally scheduled two weeks ago when school was canceled throughout the area due to frigid temperatures. By sandwiching the meet into the schedule this week, both schools are juggling heavy January training with competition.

"The meets teach them how to race and how to sprint, and that's an important facet of it," Cabel said. "This was a great stepping stone. We've made some breakthroughs, but we made some errors too, so there's things we can work on when we get back in the pool."

St. Charles North hosts the Elgin-Larkin co-op on Thursday and then hosts its annual North Stars Invitational on Saturday.

"We've all been training hard and we're all committed to doing well," Sherman said. "I think, going forward from here, and heading toward taper season, all the hard work we've done will really pay off."

For the Saints, the competitive week began Saturday with the annual College Events Invitational. Thursday, they travel to Metea Valley and then do not compete until Jan. 31 at Rockford Guilford.