Young Marmion 2nd at Block Relays

Every year, boys swim teams use their holiday break as a second preseason, as a time to hit the water and the weights with a vengeance in order to prepare for January, the month when most of the large invitationals take place.

Just as traditional as heavy holiday break training is that the Randy Block Memorial Relays hosted by Marmion serve to kick off those workouts, and the 47th annual Block Relays took place on Saturday, with Lyons Township winning for the third straight time.

But for each of Marmion, Benet and Schaumburg, there were plenty of positives coming away from the morning meet.

The hosts finished second as they have the past two years. A young team, Marmion finished 142-110 behind the victorious Lions.

"Last year, Lyons had almost as many points as the second and third team combined," Marmion coach Bill Schalz said. "I'm really happy. I'm excited with guys like Sam Wehrli and Gary Rockwood, who've made huge strides since last year. We've got some good freshmen, and those younger guys stepped up. Bottom line is that we're a better team than we were a year ago at this point."

Marmion won three of the meet's 12 events, the 500-yard freestyle relay, the 400 medley relay and the 300 breaststroke relay.

"It's a relay meet, and guys tend to swim a little faster in relays," Schalz said. "You get a 100 flyer who goes his season-best time and sees a time drop and goes 'woah,' and that's good for him. It's a fun meet and the kids are a little more relaxed, so you see some best times because of that too."

Wehrli, a sophomore, swam on the 500 freestyle relay with Anthony Bliss, Nate Kuszynski and Will Kamps.

"It was a good meet overall," Wehrli said. "We know Lyons has a good team and they swam their best too. I'm glad that I was able to swim well today. We had some rough practices this week, so coming away from them and swimming well in the meet is pretty good overall."

Marmion's swimmers took finals this week and finish next week. Schalz said the Block Relays often come the day after finals conclude, which leaves his team mentally as well as physically drained.

"I had a couple of long studying nights ahead of this, so I was a little surprised with how well I did," Wehrli said. "But I'm setting my bar higher. Today was good, but not quite what I wanted it to be."

Joel Bottarini, Joey Reiter, Rockwood and Kamps swam the 400 medley relay while Bottarini, Kamps and Rockwood swam the breaststroke relay.

As a freshman a year ago, Kamps was the only Cadets swimmer to score at the state meet, and this year's team is loaded with underclassmen.

"A lot of people are calling this a rebuilding season," Wehrli said. "I think definitely that we can do some big things this year."

Benet sat just behind the top two teams for much of the meet, and ultimately finished fourth in the six-team competition.

"I think that we need to work a little harder in our finishes and finish a little harder in some of our events," Benet coach Ben Gensler said. "But I think we're swimming where we need to be at this point of the season."

The Redwings won the 1 minute 100 freestyle relay, where each swimmer swims 25 yards and the team closest to 1 minute without going over is the winner. Benet finished in 59.75. The 200 medley relay, the frosh-soph 200 medley relay, the 300 backstroke relay and the 300 breaststroke relay teams all finished third.

"It's good to see the competition here, where there were a lot of fast relays," Gensler said. "We're a young team, and these young guys need to see that level of competition, so they know where that level is."

Benet hasn't had a state qualifier since 2013, when Patrick Lewellyan qualified in the 100 breaststroke and the Redwings haven't scored in the state meet since they finished 13th in 2007. That could change this year, and junior J.P. McAveeney is the team's top hope to make a trip to the state finals in Evanston.

"We're all practicing hard and we're swimming to the best of our abilities too," McAveeney said. "I feel like I can do a little better. But I'm still working to get to state, and hopefully, we can get more than one to state this year, which would be good for our team."

McAveeney has a chance to break the school record in the breaststroke, a mark currently held by Gensler, who finished eighth in the state finals in the event in 2008.

"Christmas Break training is going to be really good for our team," McAveeney said. "If we take it seriously, we can really take it to a much higher level."

A year ago, Schaumburg struggled mightily at the Block Relays. Saturday, a team loaded with underclassmen finished fifth and showed improvement. The 400 medley relay, comprised of three juniors and one sophomore, finished third while four sophomores swam in the frosh-soph 400 freestyle relay and finished third.

"The team's different this year with positive energy," Schaumburg coach Paul Desruisseaux said. "We were good with positive energy last year, but now they're experiencing good things. They're getting lifetime bests in every meet, and it's all good experiences got them."

Desruisseaux said his swimmers are building toward success, a process that began this year and will continue through this season, keyed by sophomores such as Tyler Reynolds, Matt Kelland and Matt Soltau, who were three-fourths of the frosh-soph 400 freestyle relay.

"Good things are coming for this team, and I'm proud to be a part of this with these boys," Desruisseaux said.

Desruisseaux said his team sets weekly goals, and the vast majority of his team meet those goals, meaning not only are goals constantly being adjusted, they are repeatedly being shifted upward.

"We meet on Wednesdays, to talk about how the last week has gone and to go over what we have to do in order to ready for the coming weekend," Desruisseaux said. "When they meet their goal, they get to stand up in front of the team and say 'I made my goal.' When 90 percent of your team is doing that, it's very exciting and encouraging."