St. Charles East caps magical season taking 5th at state

From start to finish this season, St. Charles East's boys swim team was on a mission to put itself back on the map.

The school has a fine history in the sport, but the 2016-17 team wanted to carve its own piece of history into that tradition - and they accomplished that goal this weekend by finishing fifth in the state meet in New Trier.

"It was a magical season," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We set three school records on our relays and I couldn't ask for more from the guys. It was just awesome. They were pure class the whole season."

The seeds to this year's Saints performance came from an epically-bad state meet in 20015.

"No one finaled and we took a pretty hard hit," Kyle Dunlap said. "The next year, we wanted to come back and we finaled in a couple of events. This year, the goal was really to see what we can do. We're really proud of each other and the support we've had for each other."

It took swimmers like Dunlap to make the turnaround happen. He was a JV2 swimmer his freshman year, went to the state meet as an alternate in 2015, swam in the meet as a junior and scored with the Saints 400 freestyle relay team. This year, he had his team's highest individual finish.

"The combination of coach (Dave) Bart, Coach Kent (Pearson) and Coach Cabel has helped me become the swimmer I am," Dunlap said. "A lot of that also goes to the club coaches as well. Everything I've done in the last four years belongs to them."

If this year's success is to be sustainable, or even a platform for bigger things, it will take similar success stories. As he leaves the program, Dunlap said he sees a bright future for the program.

"We've got a lot of guys who were freshmen and sophomores and some guys coming in from the club team. I'm excited to see where the Saints are going to go," Dunlap said.

The Saints' other individual swims came from senior Nick Boryk, who was 10th in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 100 backstroke. Additionally, the Saints 200 medley relay was eighth, the 200 freestyle relay was fifth and the 400 freestyle relay was fourth.

"Every year, it's been fun to hang out with friends who then become a family. It's been a great year," Boryk said.

As the Saints prepare for 2017-18, they will do so without Cabel, who coached the Saints in two stints, won state titles in 1993, 1997 and 1999, and who is retiring at the end of this school year.

"It's been a pure blast," Cabel said. "I've enjoyed every moment of it - every day at practice, every day working with them. It's what I always wanted to do, and I have to tell you that I've never worked a day in my life. I've enjoyed the whole ride."

St. Charles East continued a run of solid performance in state meets with an eighth-place finish, the fourth Top 10 finish in five years for the North Stars.

Leading the way was sophomore William Myhre, who was third in the 200 IM and second in the 100 breaststroke. Myhre helped the North Stars finish fourth in the 200 medley relay and 10th in the 200 freestyle relay.

"Friday was a great day," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "Today, we had some business that was left unfinished, and that's the nature of sports sometimes."

Of the North Stars who scored points in the state finals, only Jack Williams graduates. The others are either freshmen or sophomores.

"I don't want to talk a learning curve anymore," Rooney said. "We have to learn how to, as a team, take the next step. That next step is a hard step. It is going to take some opportunities and some experience and some experimenting and of course some patience."

With Myhre and Brad Whitehurst as scoring sophomores and Nate Baxter returning after scoring in relays as a freshman - in addition to the North Stars qualifiers who did not advance to Saturday's finals, there is a core of a team already in-place for 2017-18.

"I'm really proud of where these boys started to where they ended. There were a lot of great things this season," Rooney said.

Marmion's Will Kamps completed his third state meet by placing sixth in the 500 freestyle, which was one of the most competitive events this year. Kamps swam three seconds faster in prelims this year than he did as a sophomore but where he was seeded fourth in 2016, he was seeded sixth this year. He dropped further time in finals.

"This year, the meet all around seemed faster and especially the 500," Kamps said. "Last year, you had to swim 4:34 or 4:35 to make it back to Top 6. This year, I swam 4:30 and was sixth. It's nice seeing the meet get faster, but it's hard staying with it."

The Cadets had Nolan Fergus finish ninth in the 100 butterfly and saw their 200 freestyle relay place 12th. Overall, the Cadets know the challenge before them in order to rise from 24th in the standings.

"This year, we were hoping for a Top 10 finish," Kamps said. "But with people getting sick and everything, it didn't work out. Next year, we've got to get more depth and bring the freshmen and sophomores up so we can be a competitive time."

Marmion coach Bill Schalz said the illnesses to which Kamps alluded kept him from fielding his full lineup through the entire tail end of the season.

"We're a small team and we need that 'Hoosiers' mentality and for everything to go right," Schalz said. "The last three weeks of the season, I did not have my entire sectional or state team at practice on any single day. Then we had a bunch of little things happen."