Prospect, Barrington earn key divisional victories

Prospect's boys swimming and diving team won the first showdown of title contenders in the Mid-Suburban East by edging Wheeling 96-89 on Friday.

The Wildcats made sure it wasn't easy, and the Knights also had to overcome a disqualification of their top swimmer in the 200-yard IM to get the job done.

Three events were key to the outcome ending in Prospect's favor - a 1-2-3 sweep in diving from Anthony Liva (258.35) and twins Aiden and Aaron Busiel; a 2-3-4 finish in the 100 fly by Isaac Ginnodo, Alex Morikado and Ryan Lakner, and a 1-2 finish in the 100 breast from Jacob Kosinski and Ginnodo.

"Going into the fly, I think our guys understood," said Prospect coach Alfonso Lopez. "It was like, 'Do we want this or not?' "

Prospect needed that kind of resolve due to the senior strength throughout the top of Wheeling's lineup.

The Wildcats won all three relays. Jake Noel, Kyle Noel, Nate Reiff and Justin Loquercio each had legs on two of them.

Jake Noel won the 200 IM (2:04.18) and the 100 back (55.50), Kyle Noel won the 50 free (22.67) and 100 free (49.79), and Reiff won the 200 free (1:51.70) and the 500 free (5:09.96).

Prospect eked out a key 2-3 finish in the 500 with Jack Gabriel and Alex Jarosz.

"The goal was to see if we could get through the first part of the dual meet season unscathed, and so far, so good," Lopez said.

Barrington d. Palatine: The visiting Broncos entered their dual at Palatine in an unusually vulnerable situation.

The defending conference champs were without two key competitors, as juniors Colin O'Leary and Mitch Gavars were competing in a non-high school national meet.

And senior Colin Cross was not quite himself, as he was still recovering from a cold. That showed up in his 200 IM, which was quite a bit off his best in this young season.

But Cross and Co. still had enough to get past Palatine on this night, winning 99-87.

One key for the Broncos was the 50-meter freestyle, where Andrew Fish, John Lagoni and Brandon Schaff managed the only 1-2-3 sweep of the meet.

"I was shocked at first about the 50, then incredibly proud of those guys," said Cross. "I think Palatine has a really tough team, and not having some of our guys definitely added to the challenge."

Riley Lehmann, Cross, Fish and Max Gersten got things started in Barrington's favor by winning medley relay in 1:54.04, just three one-hundredths of a second faster than Palatine.

Palatine's Jake Klein won the 200 free, and the Pirates followed with a 1-2 finish in the IM with Alex Bartosik and Oleksiy Korniychuk - but the subsequent 50 free outcome had Palatine chasing the rest of the way.

Barrington won the 200 free relay and got a 1-2 finish from Jeremy Kleinjan and Lehmann in the 400 free, and Cross won the breaststroke.

Palatine grabbed second-half wins from Jordan Kalina in the fly, from Marcus Carter-Buckman in the backstroke and in the 400 free relay with Klein, Carter-Buckman, Kornyichuk and Bartosik. And Pirates diver Joseph Zhao won with a season-best 195.50.

Palatine coach John Schauble referred to the evening as another tough test for his group.

"This tells us where we are at this point of the year," he said. "Barrington has a lot more kids that are swimming on a year-round basis than we do. We've got a lot of work to do."

Barrington coach John Valentine pointed to the efforts from younger competitors such as Steven Latimer (third in diving), and to established competitors like Cross and Kleinjan, as keys for the Broncos.

"Even though we have some experienced guys, we still have a lot of juniors in the varsity lineup that are really getting their first taste of it," he said. "We had enough of them step up today to come out on top against a very good team."

Schaumburg d. Hoffman Estates: Evan Wahlen came up with victories in the 200- and 400-meter freestyles and the Saxons pulled out a close race to win the 200 medley relay in a 103-76 triumph.

Other Schaumburg wins came from Tyler Reynolds (200 IM) and Joseph Kula (100 back), and in the 200 free relay from Sam Thomas, Matt Soltau, Wahlen and Matt Kelland.

Hoffman Estates had double individual winners in Andy Hobar (100 fly, 100 breast) and Mark Heitkotter (50 free, 100 free).

Fremd d. Conant: The visiting Vikings won their MSL West opener 127.5-58.5 behind double individual winners Arnas Maciunas (200 free, 100 fly), Kenny Benjamin (50 free, 100 free) and a sweep of the relays.

Conant's Cole Aykroid won diving at 269.40, and the Cougars' Tim Song won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:04.44.

Buffalo Grove d. Elk Grove: Ryan Lawson, Mark Poirier and Daniel Verdico each won a pair of races to help the visiting Bison win their second straight MSL dual of the season in a 127-52 decision.

Lawson's wins came in the 100 free (54.84) and 100 breast (1:10.61), Verdico won the 500 free (5:36.84) and 200 IM (2:24.54) and Poirier was tops in the 100 fly (57.23) and 50 free (23.58).

Elk Grove got a first-place finish from Michael Banasik in the 100 back (1:06.57).