Boys swimming: St. Charles East runs away with college events meet

Nick Boryk's nose stands as the proper metaphor for January boys swimming - it can be a little bumpy and it is a bruising month, but the thing to do is overcome the discomfort and succeed anyway.

Boryk and his St. Charles East teammates rose early on Saturday, trained a few thousand yards, then rose to the challenge of their annual college events meet, claiming victory in the five-team competition 496-349 over second-placed Highland Park. Prior to the meet, and in a freak mishap, Boryk's nose was broken.

"We were just playing around in the warm-up and my teammate kicked me in the nose," Boryk said. "It's happened before. It doesn't really affect me. The only thing I do is exhale through my nose."

Nose aside, Boryk's personal results were sterling. He won the 200-yard freestyle, the 100 freestyle and the 500 freestyle before anchoring the Saints' 800 freestyle relay.

"It's definitely hard work, but in the end, it all pays off," Boryk said. "If you train hard in practice, you get good results in the meet."

Boryk and his teammates worked hard all afternoon. At the end of a grueling day and hitting the water with a 5-second lead for the final leg of the 800 freestyle relay, Boryk swam 1:49.34, which was the second-best 200 freestyle time of the afternoon.

"He could have cruised," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "And boy, he pushed it all the way. That's quality swimming right there."

The Saints never trailed in the meet after Andrew Lewarchick and Austin Jones went 1-2 in diving, followed by victory in the 400 medley relay. In addition to Boryk's three wins, Mitch Milosch won the 100 backstroke, the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly and John Tarpey won the 200 backstroke and the 400 IM.

The meet is a chance for high school swimmers to test themselves with the races they will see in college, where there are 200-yard races in all four strokes, while there is only a 200 freestyle in high school. The 1,000 freestyle, 400 IM, 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay are all twice as long as a typical meet.

"You've got to swim fast when you're tired in college," Cabel said. "I thought the guys did a nice job of getting it done for the Saints today."

The Saints were definitely tired by the end of the meet, which attracted Lincoln-Way Central, the District 300 co-op and Huntley.

"We got some pretty good yards in today," Cabel said. "We trained 6,000 yards this morning and then did another 2,000 this afternoon, so they still got in 8-9,000 yards on a Saturday. That way, we don't give up that much training because we have a meet."

Training yards are one thing, but competitive yards are another, and race by race, the Saints proved they are one of those "teams to watch" this winter.

"We're tired, especially from practice," Boryk said. "But in the end, we know it's a positive for the team."

While Boryk, Milosch and Tarpey were powerful in winning races, there is a second group of Saints swimmers who made victory possible, and who will be keys to any success the team has as the season moves toward the key February postseason meets. These include Nick Vance and Harrison Holman.

"If you want to call them our second guys, they're making the top guys a lot better," Cabel said.

The District 300 coop, which includes Jacobs, Dundee-Crown and Hampshire, finished fourth, behind the Saints, Highland Park and Lincoln-Way Central. Even with five seniors on the squad, including previous state qualifier Francis Ogaban on the squad, the co-op is growing as the season progresses.

"It was a long winter break where we trained them hard," D300 coach Rick Andresen said. "We tried to get in some of these events so they would have a little bit of what an idea what the 200 fly, 200 breast or 200 back are like. I thought they did really well today, especially with the younger kids."

Freshman Harold Ogaban was fourth in the 100 breaststroke and second in the 200 breaststroke and third in the 400 IM.

"He swam a good leadoff in the medley relay and, as a freshman, he's swimming really well," Andresen said.

Huntley's squad was a bit depleted, but the Red Raiders worked through the increased length of the meet. At most, high school teams swim only one college events meet a season, and many do not swim the distances at all.

"We were two men down, but I think they made up for it and they swam well," Huntley coach Brenda Czarnecki said. "We focus more on the shorter distances, but it's nice to have a meet like this to challenge them a little bit."

Senior Aaron Vandy was eighth in the 1,000 freestyle, 11th in the 100 butterfly and 10th in the 100 freestyle for the Red Raiders.

"He's kind of our go-to go in that we know we can rely on him," Czarnecki said. "Dillon Gaynor swam the 1,000 (freestyle), the 500 freestyle and the 200 back as well as in the 800 free relay. He swam 1,900 yards and did really well with it."