St. Charles East confident it can excel at state
The state's best boys swimmers and divers gather this weekend for the state meet at New Trier, and of the area's teams, St. Charles East is best-placed to make a run for a trophy.
The Saints qualified all three relays a diver and 12 swimming entries for this weekend's meet. Top-seeded St. Charles East swimmers include Kyle Dunlap, seeded sixth in the 100-yard freestyle and Matt Ortlund, who is seeded ninth in the 100 butterfly.
"They think they're somebody this year, and they have an ego, and I'd rather have a team like that," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We're the spoiler and the underdog and we're not on anybody's rankings right now. If we can beat some people here and there on Friday, then we can move along to Saturday."
Helping the Saints is the fact that nearly their entire state contingent saved its resting taper for the state meet, so their time drops should be extreme this weekend.
"There's definitely gas in the tank," Cabel said. "That's how we played it at the sectional, and we lost a couple of people in events where I thought they'd be here. It's no fun to come to state meets when you don't have anything left in the tank."
St. Charles North has a youthful but talented mix in its state contingent, which consists of two relays and nine individual entries. The top-seeded North Stars swimmer is sophomore William Myhre, who is seeded second in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 200 IM.
"We've got a really great mix of guys," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "We've got great youth but older leadership on the team. They're relaxed and happy and excited. I'm excited for them to swim fast."
St. Charles North has finished in the Top 10 seven times this century, including last year's sixth-place finish.
"They want more than an experience at the state meet," Rooney said. "We want to go there and swim faster than we have. We can't control what anyone else does, and I know that. What matters the most this weekend is the kids' attitudes."
Another youthful team with Top 10 aspirations is Marmion, which sends two relays and seven swimming entries to the state meet. The top-seeded Cadet is junior Will Kamps, who is seeded 10th in the 500 freestyle and 17th in the 200 freestyle.
"Last year, we got a lot of these guys in and Will Kamps scored," Marmion coach Bill Schalz said. "We've got some guys with experience coming back. We were confident enough with them that we didn't fully rest them for the sectional and hopefully this will pay off at state."
Kamps, a junior, finished 12th in the 500 freestyle in 2015 and was fifth in the same event last year and he is one of many keys to success for the Cadets this weekend.
"His goal is Top 6 in the 200 and the 500," Schalz said. "If our relays do well and if he's having a good day individually, he could be Top 6 in four events."
Success such as that, as well as perhaps some any other individual success could propel the Cadets into the Top 10.
"That's our goal," Schalz said. "Obviously we have to swim well and we'll have to get a little lucky. But I think that would be important to give our guys confidence to be a little stronger and faster next year and race for a trophy."
West Aurora has its best chance to score in the state meet since 2001, when Evan Parr finished third in the 100 backstroke and fourth in the 200 IM. This year, the Blackhawks have Tyler McLaren qualified in the 200 IM and Owen Zant seeded 18th in the 100 backstroke.
"I know we don't have three relays and as many qualifiers as some other schools, but for the history we have, to have two qualifiers is huge," said West Aurora coach Chris Ranallo. "I know (McLaren) wants to do more than experience the meet and he wants to be faster on Saturday. This is going to push the bar forward a bit for us as a program."
Other area qualifiers include Batavia-West Chicago's Keegan Hawkins and Geneva's Payton Glod.