Boys swimming: Waubonsie Valley wins final race, invite
It was the high school swimming equivalent of Game 7 of the World Series or an NFL playoff game after the two-minute warning.
Defending champ Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley had either won or placed second in every event of Saturday's West Chicago Wildcat Relays.
Understandably, the two teams were tied going into the final event of the completion, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Waubonsie relay of Jared Simpson, Ryan Ruhde, Aayush Deshpande and Cole Steffl edged Neuqua's entry of Kevin Wu, Brandon Chelstrom, Jack Hiss and John Ruan, 3 minutes, 13.76 seconds to 3:14.92.
The team title then belonged to Waubonsie. The Warriors scored 161 points in the 10-school meet and the Wildcats finished with 158.
Stagg was third at 121, York was fourth at 100 and Lockport fifth with 93.
Going into the meet, Neuqua had won the championship four straight years and 15 times overall since 1999.
"This year we wanted this bad," Simpson, a senior, said.
That this meet was so close surprised no one.
"We knew it was going to be close. We knew they would stack the back end of their relays," Deshpande said.
Both Waubonsie and Neuqua broke the meet record in the 400 freestyle relay. Waubonsie's five other victories came in the 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay, the 200 butterfly relay, the 200 breaststroke relay and the 800 freestyle relay.
The 400 medley relay also set a meet record. Simpson, Ruhde, Deshpande and Steffl were on other winning relays as were Jake Darlinger, Sam Hurdle, Elmer Weng, Brian Daugherty, Evan Villeneuve, Lucas Conrads and Brian Knothe.
"It's just amazing and great how everyone on the team contributed today," Ruhde said.
Waubonsie coach Nick Arens said the Warriors hit the pool running right at the start of the season.
"It was the extra effort by our boys. We were competitive in every relay from top to bottom. It was wholly a team effort. This group is ambitious," he said.
Neuqua's five victories came in the 500 freestyle relay, the 200 JV medley relay, the 200 backstroke relay, the 200 JV freestyle relay and the 200 varsity freestyle relay. Wu, Chelstrom, Hiss and Ruan were on other Neuqua winning or high-scoring relays with Tanner Schrey, Nate Cobb, Jimmy Senese, Rohan Nagori, Amir Aliyev, Connor Boyle, Michael Blackledge and Connor Hwang also members of winning relays.
The two JV events counted toward a team's final overall score.
"Waubonsie is really strong. We knew coming in that it would come down to the last relay," said Neuqua coach Chad Allen. "We swam well as a team. We were first or second with Waubonsie in every relay. I have never seen that happen. Nobody got too far ahead. Our guys gave a nice effort."
The host of the meet, West Chicago-Batavia co-op, had three relays finish third. Brian Culloton, Danny Mohon, Teegan Cook and Keegan Hawkins were third in the 500 freestyle as was the JV 200 medley squad of Cook, Culloton, Kyle Wolford and Tom Crum.
Mohon, Cook, Crum and Hawkins were third in the 200 butterfly relay.
West Chicago-Batavia was seventh in the team standings with 74 points.