Boys swimming: St. Charles East 'races' past St. Charles North
As they concluded their two weeks of brutal vacation training, St. Charles' high school boys swimming teams faced off in this year's dual meet, with the goal from both coaches being to "race" as hard as they could.
It says something about the talent at St. Charles North, which hosted this meet and St. Charles East, which won 108-78, that the racing was incredibly competitive.
"Our approach was that it was race day, and it didn't matter what team it was," St. Charles East coach Adam Musial said. "It happened to be St. Charles North, and we're fierce competitors in the water, and friends when the meet's over. But the reason they swam as fast as they was because of us and the reason we swam as fast as we did was because of them."
The meet was much closer than the final score. In fact, the Saints led the North Stars 71-69 after the 200-yard freestyle relay. St. Charles East pulled away in the final three events.
As with all area teams, the last two weeks have been packed with multilayered practice days, and long hours Friday prior to the dual meet. Teams leave these midwinter training periods with an extra boost as they enter the final six weeks of the season.
"It's a little weird having a meet right at the end of break. I was pleasantly happy. I'm excited with how they're training, where they're at and what we're going to do," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. The North Stars continue a hectic schedule Saturday with a trip to the competitive Evanston Invitational.
Brad Whitehurst was among the North Stars who had a strong dual meet. He won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle and was part of the victorious 200 freestyle relay. Whitehurst said this year's vacation training will set his team up for the remaining weeks of the season.
"We all joke about it and say that we hate it, but there's a camaraderie about it," Whitehurst said. "You come through it and we all secretly enjoy the camaraderie of shared suffering. Now we go back-to-back with Evanston, which is supposed to emulate the state meet, so we've just got to get through it."
As they broke away in the final third of the meet, the Saints gained wins from Mitch Milosch in the 100 backstroke, Sean Yetter in the 100 breaststroke and then a win in the 400 freestyle relay. The Saints' wins came from Kyle Lewarchick also won the 200 IM.
"We didn't get everything we wanted for today, and that's what I wanted," Musial said. "That means there's we're hungry for more and they'll be ready to keep training hard after today."
Of the Saints who performed well was diver Joey Scimeca, who scored 261.25, won the competition by 60 points and is rounding into good midseason form.
"I felt like today went pretty well, but I need to work on some dives still," Scimeca said.
St. Charles North gained race wins from Will Myhre in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle and Nate Baxter in the 100 butterfly.
As with all St. Charles East-St. Charles North dual meets - boys and girls - the last three seasons, Friday's meet included fundraising to benefit the For Scout Foundation, which was created after swim-loving youngster Scout Cantrell died at just 9 years-old.
St. Charles' swim teams raised $1,700 for the For Scout Foundation, which has raised more than $142,000 since 2015.