Hinsdale Central, Barrington like going long at Hinsdale South
The annual Jim Wheelock College Events boys swimming meet at Hinsdale South High School isn't your average competition.
There are some familiar events, but for the majority of the meet, it's a festival of yardage.
The 2018 edition Saturday saw Hinsdale Central win the meet with 286 points with Barrington in second at 223 and third-place Naperville Central the final team with a 200-plus showing at 214.50.
The biggest event of the meet is the first event on the schedule, the 1,000-yard freestyle. It takes place well before the rest of the meet and a break follows the heats.
It was a battle to the finish as Mason McCauley of Deerfield touched the wall at 10 minutes, 18.60 seconds - just ahead of Barrington sophomore Dan Emary (10:18.95). Wheaton Co-op's Patrick White was third in 10:19.72 and Daniel Langlois of Barrington fourth at 10:20.48.
"I kind of approach it like the 500. I go out as fast as I can and try to maintain that pace," Emary said. "I expected that it would end like that. I saw four of us lined up in the same place."
White took a different approach.
"We don't do a lot of 1,000s in practice. It's a longer race. I go slow and try to hold a good pace," he said.
Benet placed fourth Saturday as a team followed by West Chicago-Batavia Co-op, Deerfield, Wheaton Co-op, Lake Park, Hinsdale South, Palatine and Rockford Guilford.
West Chicago-Batavia's Keegan Hawkins was a double winner, first in the 400 individual medley in 4:15.12 and then the 200 breaststroke, clocking in at 2:11.77. Hawkins likes the challenge of the longer events.
"I swim club and we swim those events. You have to have more at the end and the energy to chase people down," he said. "It was a good day for our team."
Hawkins was part of 400 medley relay that was third with Kyle Wolford, Teegan Cook and Brian Culloton. Cook was third in the 200 butterfly.
Naperville Central's Andrew Dai won the 200 butterfly in 2:00.24 and Dominic May was champ in the 100 freestyle in 49.54. Dai was second in the 400 IM as were the 200 freestyle relay (Brad Sanford, Luke Klein-Collins, Adam Kowalyshen and May), the 800 freestyle relay (Sanford, Klein-Collins, Dai and May) and Klein-Collins in the 200 freestyle.
Lake Park went home with an individual title thanks to Ben Kimmel's effort in the 200 backstroke. His time of 1:56.91 was the lone sub-2:00 performance in the event. He was also second in the 200 butterfly.
Benet's best finish Saturday was a third-place in the 200 freestyle relay with Justin Vasko, Ryan Shanley, Nick Tommasone and Andrew Prisby. Shanley was also third in the 100 freestyle.
Wheaton's Will Schmidt was second in the 200 backstroke.
Barrington's collection of top-three medals included the second-place 400 medley relay of Steven Fischer, Jack Hoppe, Sam Burrell and Shawn Ujiiye, and Hoppe's second-place marks in the 100 freestyle and 200 breaststroke. Third-place finishes went to Daniel Langlois in the 200 freestyle, Burrell in the 50 freestyle, Emary in the 500 freestyle, Fischer in the 200 backstroke and the 800 freestyle relay of Burrell, Langlois, Liam Rorison and Hoppe.