Naperville Central wins tight DVC meet
The team standings had not been announced going into the final event of Saturday's DuPage Valley Conference boys swimming championships at Naperville Central.
And was it ever close heading into the 400-yard freestyle relay. The hosts Redhawks trailed Neuqua Valley by 3.5 points. And the race turned out to mirror the team standings.
The Naperville Central team of Matt Wooten, Dominic May, Michael Stern and Phillip Sajaev came through, touching the wall in 3 minutes, 15.02 seconds to win the race and give the Redhawks the overall DVC title.
"We wanted to win DVC and we wanted to win so bad for the team," Wooten said.
Naperville Central was awarded the title plaque thanks to 362.5 points. Neuqua was second at 356. Naperville North (328), Waubonsie Valley (325.5) and Metea Valley (237) followed.
There was a razor's thin edge between the winner and second and third places in the 400 freestyle relay. Waubonsie was second in 3:15.36 courtesy of Aayush Deshpande, Jared Simpson, Zachary Woodham and Eric Weng. The Naperville North quartet of Noah Ellis, Brandon Chan, Joey Yuan and Horace Qiao touched the wall in 3:15.47.
"It was a great race," said Redhawks coach Mike Adams. "Four teams coming out of that last wall.
"There were a lot of great swims today. I give the kids a lot of credit. They knew what was on the line."
Stern and Sajaev also won individual events. Stern won the 200 freestyle in 1:47.81, and Sajaev was tops in the 50 freestyle at 21.63. Sajaev also won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.49.
Neuqua won a relay and two individual events. The 200 freestyle relay of Jacob Cunningham, Sathrya Subramanian, Tanner Schrey and John Ruan got the gold with a 1:28.41. Earlier Cunningham won the 500 freestyle in 4:49.51, a drop from his seed time of 4:50.97.
"They are going to taper me for state, which gives me hope for sectionals," Cunningham said. "I need to cut to 4:45 (4:45.38, state-qualifying time) and I can do that."
The diving competition wrapped up Saturday morning and Neuqua Valley's Robby Nowicki scored 490.05 points for the victory.
Naperville North won a relay and two individual events as well. The Huskies won the first event on the race list, the 200 medley relay with Qiao, Josh Tak, Chan and Ellis finishing in 1:37.37. And like he did a week before at the Metea Valley Mustang Invitational, Qiao won the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.
Weng also won the 100 freestyle for Waubonsie Valley in 48.71 and Simpson was first in the 100 backstroke in 53.64.
Top finishes for Metea Valley were the 200 freestyle relay of Samuel Kastan, Janssen Gamilla, Ben Forbes and John Tjards that racked up a 1:31.15 and Michael Chan's 55.09 in the 100 backstroke, both for fourth place.
The best finish for Wheaton Warrenville co-op was Patrick White's third in the 500 freestyle. Lake Park's Eric Sgarbossa was third in the 100 breaststroke and Glenbard North/East co-op's Peter Andrew was fourth in the 100 freestyle.
Next up for Illinois high school swimming teams are the Feb. 18 sectionals. Naperville Central, Naperville North, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley head to Neuqua Valley. Wheaton Warrenville co-op and Glenbard North/East co-op are at St. Charles East and Lake Park will be at Downers Grove South.