Boys swimming: Relays set a tone of achievement for Cary-Grove
It wasn't quite a perfect afternoon for Cary-Grove in Saturday's state qualifying meet at Stevenson.
But it came pretty darned close.
The Trojans had assembled a lineup focused on getting all three relays into next week's action at Evanston.
The last of them, the 400-yard freestyle relay, was a near miss, finishing second in 3:13.41.
But the first two were something special.
In the medley relay, Noah Siegmeier, Hunter Jackson, Peyton Richardson and Kolin Fadden finished fourth in 1:37.09, two-tenths faster than the qualifying standard.
"We knew it would be close," said Cary-Grove coach Scott Lattyak, "and it sure was. That was a great way to get things started for us."
There were enough high points for the Trojans to finish fifth in the team standings with 132.5 points. Stevenson (326) was far and away the top team, followed by Barrington and Fremd tied for second at 173, and the Dist. 300 Jacobs co-op team in fourth at 142.
In the 200 free relay, Cary-Grove's Omid Babakhani, Cameron Castro, Connor Dolezal and Kolin Fadden took second in 1:27.22, faster than the state cut by about half a second.
"We knew the 200 had a great chance, and I guess the 400 was a little disappointing," said Lattyak. "But even there, everybody had great swims."
Sophomore Peyton Richardson's performance was noteworthy even though it did not result in an individual state meet qualification.
In the 200 IM, he placed fourth in 1:57.93, narrowly missing the state cut.
"He qualified to this meet in 2:01, which was a four-second drop," Lattyak said. "Then, to drop another four seconds? That's remarkable. He'd asked how he should approach it, and I said, 'Just go for it.' And that's exactly what he did."
The Dist. 300 squad also had plenty of good performances, but coach Rick Andresen had hoped for better.
True, the Fox Valley champs counted 14 personal bests for the day and had all three relays place in the top six. But no state qualifiers.
"We just didn't have the day we thought we could have," Andresen said.
The top relay was the 400 free, where Reid Coyle, Eric Boysen, Harold Ogaban and Elijah Stuart placed fourth in 3:17.88. The medley and 200 free relays both placed fifth.
The top individual efforts came from Ogaban in the 100 back (fourth, 53.38) and 200 IM (fifth, 1:59.66), Stuart in both the 50 free and 100 free (sixth) and freshman Vince Chiappetta in the 500 free (sixth in 4:51.96).
Andresen know his team will miss seniors Stuart and Boyle next year but is already looking forward to seeing what a solid group of returners can do next season.
Lattyak, meanwhile, says he enjoyed seeing the camaraderie his team and the Dist. 300 group displayed.
"We love racing with them," he said. "It's great to get to a meet like this and know you can root for each other."