Boys swimming and diving: St. Charles North, Myhre shine at state
Each of the three Fox Valley area boys swim teams with athletes still alive in the state meet on Saturday left the final day of the season feeling they had accomplished much.
They also had hopes for the future as they look to build on this year's successes.
St. Charles North, which will return nearly all swimmers who competed in this year's state meet, tied for sixth. Marmion, with an experienced core that will need to be replaced, also tied for sixth - a three-way tie that included Neuqua Valley. St. Charles East finished not far behind that logjam and was 10th.
St. Charles North had a mixture of results with its six Saturday swims, led by Will Myhre, who finished second in the 200-yard IM and later finished second in the 100 breaststroke for the best individual day in the water for the North Stars since Chris Peterson won the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle in 2007.
The North Stars opened the day with a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay, but hit high gear midway through the meet When Nate Baxter finished ninth in the 100 butterfly and then Brad Whitehurst and Ricky Williams were ninth and 12th, respectively, in the 500 freestyle.
"You always want to walk off with more and that's the good thing about being a competitor. But I think we have taken some great steps forward. Our time's coming soon. A lot of good things happened today and this weekend," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "
The North Stars' 200 freestyle relay finished 10th, but the team missed a chance to finish higher as its meet-ending 400 freestyle relay failed to qualify for Saturday's finals.
"We've got a lot of confidence in our medley relay, but we've got to get a little confidence in the two freestyle relays - but that's coming," Rooney said.
Baxter said the team could feel the pieces falling into place as the season progressed. All top teams train incredibly hard, and the North Stars were right there in terms of hours spent in training to prepare for the state meet.
"We worked our butts off, five hours a day for three months, and when the time came this weekend, we just raced. We can see how the hard work paid off. I'm ready to jump in the water and start preparing for next year right now," Baxter said.
St. Charles North has been a frequent visitor to the Top 10 since it opened, and this year marked the fourth straight Top 10 finish for the North Stars.
"We all worked hard to be here today and to do what we did, and we should all be happy with what we did. But we can't be content. We want to strive to be our best," Williams said.
Like Baxter, Williams said he was ready to go through the long offseason and grueling in-season training to get ready for 2019.
"We've got to get right back to the grind starting Monday. I'm excited to get back at it," Williams said.
If there's one swimmer on-deck who showed how four years of hard work can pay off, it was Marmion's Sam Wehrli. As a freshman, Wehrli was a junior-varsity swimmer for whom a spot at the state meet was miles away. Saturday, Wehrli capped his career by finishing eighth in the 50 freestyle, leading off the Cadets' 200 medley relay (10th) and 200 freestyle relay (7th) and swimming the second leg of the Cadets' 400 freestyle relay (3rd).
"I remember freshman year, I'd never swam before there were days I wanted to quit," Wehrli said. "I actually did try to quit three or four times, but (Schalz) wouldn't let me. He kept pushing me and pushing me."
Wehrli said his goal was to be one of "those guys" - one of Marmion's varsity swimmers. He achieved that goal his sophomore year. The progression continued. He scored in the state meet as part of Marmion's 200 freestyle relay in 2017 and scored in four events as a senior.
"There were lots of nights when I'd sit up in bed and look at the wall and listen to some songs and tell myself 'you've got to keep going,'" Wehrli said. " (Schalz) wouldn't give up on me. My Bullets club coaches wouldn't give up on me, and my return to them was that I wouldn't ever give up on them. They changed my life forever."
As a team, Marmion's finish was its best since placing eighth in 2013, and the core of the Cadets' team was its senior class. Other individual results included senior Will Kamps' fourth-place finish in the 200 IM and a sixth-place finish in the 500 freestyle. Junior Nolan Fergus tied for 11th in the 100 butterfly.
"We had three seniors on that (400 freestyle) relay and we've got a lot of work to do next year. But we've got (Fergus) coming back and Ty Spillane, a freshman who swam for us in the medley relay and Henry Bliss, who was on the 200 free relay. We've got the framework to come back," Schalz said.
While points are only kept and trophies are only handed out on Saturday, those on-deck at the meet know the key is Friday, and St. Charles East had a string of close misses in the prelims that kept them from being able to finish higher than 10th.
"We came in (Friday) on Cloud 9 knowing our diver (Joey Scimeca) had gotten in, and then we started the meet by setting a school record in the medley relay and we got seventh. The guys continued to battle through the night, but we couldn't catch a break," St. Charles East coach Adam Musial said.
Despite having perhaps fewer swims than they might have hoped, the Saints performed well on Saturday. Mitch Milosch capped his high school career when he placed fifth in the 100 backstroke.
"I'm happy with it. I swam my best with it and that's all I can do. There are a lot of good memories this year," Milosch said.
The Saints' 200 medley relay was seventh, and so was the school's 200 freestyle relay. The 400 freestyle relay placed eighth.
"Prelims kind of hit us hard," Milosch said. "We regrouped and I think we really hit today well. We took the best of what we got, and I think everyone stepped up and did well today."
Scimeca gave the Saints a boost when he finished seventh in diving, making him the team's first diver since Tony Marinaccio in 1999 to score in the state meet.
"It's surreal right now," Scimeca said. "I'm so happy with myself and I'm just thinking about next year."
Scimeca is a former gymnast whose diving career has been on an upward trajectory since he switched sports. He qualified for the state meet as a freshman and is now a state placewinner.
"I'm thankful that the North boys and girls stayed to watch me dive, as well as the East boys and girls. "They didn't have to do that, but I'm thankful for that," Scimeca said.
Despite some disappointments, Musial said seven of the nine Saints swimmers or divers who attended the state meet competed on Saturday.
"We got experience today and it took a team effort to get to where we were," Musial said. "We're excited for the future. This whole weekend was a learning experience. We're hungry now. We're leaving this meet knowing we could have done a little better."