Benet, St. Viator swim to dual-meet tie
For Thursday's boys swimming meet between St. Viator and visiting Benet Academy, the Lions were approaching it family style.
One of St. Viator's key competitors, Keegan Finn, was out of the meet in an effort to recover from pneumonia, so Lions coach Jamie Klotz had rearranged his lineup, and lowered his expectations.
After the meet, a pleased Klotz was thinking he might have underestimated the resolve and unity of his team.
"So, yes, we were without Keegan, but everybody else and their brother stepped up pretty huge for us," he said.
The result was a 47-47 tie in a meet both teams were using as an opportunity to refocus for the season's stretch run.
"Honestly, you swim a team like Benet without your full lineup and swimming 'off' events, I thought we might really get it handed to us," Klotz said. "The reason we didn't is that we have some swimmers who area really embracing their roles - roles they really haven't had before."
Benet had a slight edge in event wins. Bram Williams won the 200-yard free (1:53.81) and 100 free (51.61), Nick Michaels won the 100 fly and tied with teammate Patrick Mudge for top honors in the 50 free (24.42) and J.P. McAveeney had nice performances in winning the 200 IM (2:08.93) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.64).
But St. Viator was able to win two of the relays and got a pair of event wins from freshman standout Michael Balcerak. His 4:46.51 in the 500 free was about a second off the pool record held by Fremd's Tyler Holcomb, and Balcerak also had the winning 100 backstroke effort (58.33).
Benet coach Sarah Maggio couldn't point to any season-best efforts from the meet, but was relieved to return to something like a normal routine.
"This was our first meet since before the holiday break," she said, "and I think we really needed it. We came out of break and then missed some school and practices (due to harsh winter weather), and everything just felt a little bit disjointed.
"A meet like today is kind of a reminder that there's not that much of the season left - let's get serious."
Mudge, Michael, McAveeney and Williams gave Benet a decisive victory in the 200 free relay, finishing in 1:34.90.
Klotz specified the 200 free as the kind of event that made a difference for his team. Will McEvoy placed second in 2:05.49 and teammate Frank Skorski was third in 2:07.27, both season-best efforts that made all the difference in the outcome of the meet.
Other positives for St. Viator included Matt Stack's third-place finish in the 100 breast (1:07.70), another season-best time. Conor Loy scored points with a third-place finish in the 50 free and continued to provide, in Klotz's words, "great leadership." And Viator's 400 free relay of Shea Boyer, Brandon Calderon, Mitchell Warren and Balcerak finished in 3:28.63 - and that's without Finn, who would have provided the second-fastest leg.
Another reason swimming a makeshift lineup against Benet was attractive to Klotz is that helps keep the Lions mentally fresh for their best events in Saturday's invitational hosted by Buffalo Grove.
"We're looking forward to it," he said. "We have a bunch of guys who are seeing the result of all the hard work they're doing."