Stevenson measures up in Lake County Invitational
The Lake County boys swimming invitational is always a good early-season measuring stick for everyone.
And with just about a third of the season completed, teams were certainly looking to improve their positioning, as well as their strokes, on Saturday afternoon at Stevenson.
The host Patriots looked in fine form in winning the title with 301 points, outdistancing Barrington (271) in second and Lake Forest third (162).
"There's was some really good competition, and we rose to the occasion," said Pats coach Doug Lillydahl, who coached the varsity boys from 1996-2004 and has made his return to the head coaching spot this winter. "This is a great meet early in the year and serves as good preparation and practice for the end of the season and the state meet."
The Pats had multiple events winners, including sophomore Nick Baginski, who was part of the 400 state qualifying relay team last year but a sinus infection kept him from reaching Evanston in his best individual events, the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
"I'm hopefully going to make up for missing out a little bit last year at the end," said Baginski, who on Saturday took home medals after winning the 50 freestyle (21.96) and placing second in the 100 butterfly (51.99). "I was quicker off the walls and did exactly what I wanted to do today. Our team is really solid and we do a great job motivating each other."
Baginski also swam anchor on the winning 200 freestyle relay, where he joined Alex Kapecki, Topher Stensby and Andrew Shashin in 1:29.29. That was followed by another victory, as he teamed up with Daniel Ng, Shashin and Stensby to win the 400 free relay in 3:16.62.
Ng picked up an individual medal in winning the 200 IM (2:00.66), and Kapecki grabbed a second-place medal in the 200 medley relay where he joined John Roh, Alan Fang and Ng in 1:41.35.
There were plenty of positives for Barrington and coach John Valentine.
"This is always a fun meet and a good benchmark to see where things stand early in the season," he said. "It's a nice opportunity to go head to head with a strong field."
One of the Broncos top performers was John Lagoni, who won the 100 freestyle (49.25), finished third in the 200 freestyle (1:48.35) and was part of the second-place 400 freestyle relay, where he combined with Max Gersten, Jeremy Kleinjan and Mitch Gavars to finish in 3:19.07.
"He (Lagoni) came from behind in the 100 free. He went really hard the last 35 yards and pulled away," noted Valentine. "Our distance events are pretty strong and we're excited about our relays."
Speaking of distance, the Barrington trio of Gavars, Kleinjan, and Riley Lehmann all finished in the top six in the 500 freestyle. Gavars (4:47.60) was second, Kleinjan fourth (4:59.41) and Lehmann sixth (5:00.50).
Colin O'Leary, Colin Cross, Gavars and Andrew Fish also teamed up to win the 200 medley relay (1:40.21), while O'Leary also won the 100 backstroke (53.04) and Cross was the county champ in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.14).
Libertyville also made some waves in finishing fourth with 139 points.
Top performers for the Cats included Eric Turner, Richi Rush, Nick Harrington, and Sean Coughlin, who teamed up to finish second in the 200 free relay (1:31.45). Coughlin, Harrington, Noah Jamieson, and Turner also picked up a fourth-place medal in the 400 free relay (3:22.20). And Jacob Reichert showed his stuff on the diving board earlier in the day, finishing third with 386.80 points.
"We're pretty exhausted but we're really happy with our progress. We swam a lot faster than expected," said Libertyville second-year coach Mike Cunningham.
Duncan Black was Mundelein's top performer, finishing second in the 50 freestyle (22:51) and fourth in the 100 freestyle (50.60). Black also swam anchor on the fourth-place 200 free relay team, where he joined Mike Ward, Will Garcia, and Eric Kozokar to swim 1:32.88.
"I did OK today. I lost some time in the 50 but I've been working on my breakouts. I need a little more power so we've been hitting the weights a little harder to try and build up the triceps. We're pretty deep this year and the chemistry on the team is fantastic," said Black, also a state qualifier from last season.
The Mustangs racked up 131 points to finish fifth in the 10-team field.
"We don't really have that star power but we have depth so we can compete with anyone," said Mundelein coach Rahul Sethna. "There's always room for improvement, but this is a good meet against some strong competition."
Vernon Hills finished seventh with 117 points.
Senior Brian Rabinowitz finished fifth in the 100 butterfly (55.12) and later teamed up with Calvin Yoon, Oliver Leung, and Jeffrey Zhang to finish third in the 200 medley relay (1:42.03). The same quartet also took fifth in the 400 free relay (3:28.83).
"I was 2-3 seconds off all of my times, which was great. I haven't been that close this early in the season, which is very satisfying," said Rabinowitz, a state qualifier in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly a year ago. "I'm trying to get more endurance and need to work on my underwaters and legs."
Warren's motto so far in the early going has been 'keep moving forward,' which held plenty of water on Saturday.
"We're young but again, this is a chance to reinvigorate ourselves," said coach Chris Bertana, whose team finished eighth with 84 points. "We swam well today. We can mix and match, which we did in several events, and we swam well."
Bertana was particularly impressed with his divers. Junior Nicholas Hoppe, who is brand new to diving, finished fifth (323.30), and Zack Bongratz was sixth (318.55).
Brian Hoppe joined the Devils this week as diving coach, a much-needed void the Devils have been trying to fill since the end of last season.
"He has mostly a gymnastics background and kind of learning diving as we go," said Bertana. "We're very happy to have him with us. We were fortunate. It just kind of fell into our laps."