St. Charles North 5th at own invite
For its final competitive week of the regular season, St. Charles North's boys swimming team has been more than busy.
In addition to their usual morning training, the North Stars have been active competitively too. Thursday, they hosted Upstate Eight foe West Aurora. Friday, they shifted their lineup and swam former UEC power Neuqua Valley. Saturday, they invited a dozen schools to their pool for the school's annual invitational.
So it's probably not a surprise the North Stars looked a little weary in the pool, though they still finished fifth against a field that included 2015 runner-up Peoria Notre Dame, which won the meet 342-290 over second-place Dunlap.
"It's kind of nice to have back-to-back scenarios for the kids, so they kind of set up a state meet style scenario," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "I'm happy with where we're at and with what we're doing. The team is really coming together, more and more, every day."
On the white board on the east side of the pool, the North Stars have a countdown for the final meets of the season, and there are only four more meets in which the team will compete this season. JV swimmers head to Hinsdale Central next Saturday, all levels swim in the Feb. 6 Upstate Eight Conference meet, then only varsity swimmers compete in the Feb. 20 IHSA sectional and qualifiers from that meet head to Evanston for the Feb. 26-27 state meet.
Put bluntly, there isn't a lot of time left in the season, though there will still be plenty of heavy training in anticipation of that quartet of meets.
"We're in the right spot," Rooney said. "We've got a good team and we've got the right mentality to do things right for each other. I'm excited for the next few weeks."
In the water on Saturday, the North Stars gained one champion when freshman Will Myhre set a meet record in the 100-yard breaststroke. Myhre swam 58.31 and broke the record by more than a second-and-a-half.
"I think for having three meets in a row, we gave it our all today," Myhre said. "I think we swam really strong. We're all sore and we're all tired, but we did a good job cheering for our teammates to help them push through."
A back injury kept Myhre from swimming on Thursday, and he competed in relays on Friday. He scratched from the 200 IM on Saturday, but swam relays as well as the breaststroke. As a freshman, he is preparing for his first postseason.
"I love having big meets like this," Myhre said. "Having a small arena and a ton of people here, it really gets the energy up. It motivates our whole team and it was really fun to compete today."
The North Stars' relays were also strong. The 200 medley relay was second while the 200 freestyle relay was third. The school's best event was the 50 freestyle, where Joe Myhre finished fourth and Stephen Hutchinson was sixth. Joe Myhre added a fifth-place swim in the 100 freestyle.
"We had some solid swims," Rooney said. "We have to learn, however, that if we swim one speed on Friday, we have to come back and swim the same speed on Saturday. We had a few boys where that didn't happen today, and that's why we had the meets this way."
St. Charles North further got a strong effort from diver Mike Burke, who was third behind two divers who finished in the Top 12 in the state a year ago - Rockton Hononegah's Payton Stamm and Belvidere North's Jabob Hedberg.
St. Charles North's invitational always brings an eclectic selection of teams from throughout the state, including Waukesha South from Wisconsin, Champaign Central and Normal University High and schools from the Rockford area as well. Peoria Notre Dame was the class of the group this year, setting four meet records and winning nine events to easily claim the team title.
"Peoria Notre Dame, I think, is the No. 1 team in the state," Rooney said. "They're deeper than anyone else. I just like to see different teams, different coaches, different mentalities and philosophies and giving my team a chance to race against different kids."
Barrington scored 266 points and finished solidly in third place. Colin O'Leary was third in the 100 butterfly as well as the 100 backstroke. John Lagoni was second in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 100 freestyle. The team's best event was the 500 freestyle, where Mitch Gavars was second and Jeremy Kleinjan was fifth. The Broncos were also strong in the 100 breaststroke, where Colin Cross was fifth and Max Gersten was sixth.
Where St. Charles North is finished with its competitive schedule, the Broncos have a pair of dual meets this week to finish their regular season, a home meet with Hoffman Estates on Tuesday and a trip to Schaumburg on Friday.
Libertyville finished eighth and got Top 10 finishes from Noah Jamieson, who was sixth in the 200 IM and Eric Turner, who was ninth in the 100 butterfly.
"We're exhausted - there has been no relief in any of their workouts," Libertyville coach Mike Cunningham said. "Yesterday was a tough day for them, and they're swimming pretty tough for me."