Benet's McAveeney working for state

JP McAveeney has been rock solid on what is mostly an inexperienced but building Benet boys swimming team.

At last Saturday's Downers Grove North Trojan Invite the Benet junior finished fourth in strong fields in both the 100-yard freestyle in 50.41 and in the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.09. He hopes to qualify for the state meet for the first time in February.

"The breaststroke is my best chance for state," McAveeney said. "But I'm also hoping to make it in the 100 free. In the off-season my club coach and this season Benet coach (Ben) Gensler have pushed me to go as hard as I can in practice."

McAveeney believes the hard work has given him a more mature approach to the sport.

"My attitude has really changed," McAveeney said. "I'm treating every practice like it's my last practice of the year. Coach Gensler is working the 100 instead of long distance swims and it's really helping my sprinting."

"JP is pushing himself to the limits and now state is within his reach," Gensler said. "He's a leader in the pool and shows the other guys on the team how much they have to push in practice."

A good tip:

Michael Stern benefited from some extra pointers this week, and it may have had an immediate payoff.

"One of my coaches (assistant coach Bob Pito) gave me some tips on working my kick," Stern said. "I tried to work on that today and it turned out well."

Stern won the 200 freestyle at last Saturday's Trojan Invite with a 1:47.88

"I had so much more strength in my arms on the back half of the 200," said Stern, who qualified for state last year in both the 200 and the 100 fly.

Last Saturday Stern finished second in the 500 free and also swam the first leg of the Redhawks' 400 free relay team that finished second.

"These time drops are giving me more confidence going into sectionals," Stern said. "I'm going a lot faster than last season. This year I'm hoping to qualify in both distance freestyle events and possibly swim on two relays. It's exciting to have a lot of events."

"Stern really raced well today and that's great because we needed it," said Naperville Central coach Mike Adams. "He's training very well and it's good to see him come out and race. You could see this year that he really paid the price in the off-season. He's one of so many guys who are going after spots on the relays."

Divine at a distance:

Senior Kevin Kluge gives Metea Valley strong coverage in the distance freestyle events. Kluge, who finished 10th at state in the 500, had a strong meet at last weekend's Trojan Invite at Downers Grove North.

He finished fourth in the 200 free and fifth in the 500 free in a meet that included several racers who could score at state.

"Kevin is one of our consistent veterans," said Metea Valley coach Mark Jager. "He's getting better as the season goes on and we're expecting big things from him again."

"I'm a little tired, but I feel that I'm making progress throughout the season," Kluge said. "Last year was my first at state, so I'll go into sectionals stronger and more experienced. I'm hoping to contribute on the relays as well."

Kluge's teammate Alex Dillmann finished just ahead of him in the 500 and brought Metea its only victory of the day in the 100 butterfly.

"Alex and I do a lot of distance work together," Kluge said. "We worked really hard in the off-season. All of our seniors are pushing each other so that we really do well at the end of the season."

Predicting good things:

Now that Downers Grove South's Sam Dumford has made a full-time commitment to swimming, Mustangs coach Bryan Szweda sees a big future for his junior standout.

Dumford qualified for state last year in both the 50 and 100 freestyle, and that was after competing for the Mustangs as the starting goalkeeper on the soccer team and playing club soccer in the off-season.

"This year I'm hoping to come back on Saturday," Dumford said.

After finishing his soccer season last fall Dumford decided that his future is in swimming, this year, next year and in college, so he is not playing club soccer any more.

"He's kind of a swimming rookie compared to other top swimmers," Szweda said. "He's been a big-meet swimmer this year, so I'm excited to see what he'll do at sectionals and state."

At Saturday's Trojan Invite Dumford won both the both the 50 and the 100 freestyle races against top-flight competition.

"These were better than the times I swam here last year by a good margin," Dumford said. "I'm a lot less tired because I'm not doing soccer any more."

Szweda sees Dumford as someone who will really take off as a swimmer in college.

"He's getting the experience and he should be really great in his senior high school season and in college," Szweda said.

"I'm committed to go on to swim in college," Dumford said. "I love to compete in both sports, but so far I like the choice I made.