Furious finish helps Fremd win at St. Viator
After the first couple of races, it was clear that Fremd and Loyola were going to battle for the title at the St. Viator boys swimming invitation.
"Midway through the meet, after our 50 freestyle, we had a reorientation (to get focused)," said Vikings coach Nicole LaBeau. "They snapped in and did a great job."
Everything got exciting down the stretch, beginning with the 500-yard free where Jeff Freund (5:09.00) and Tony Palcheck (5:11.88) were 1-2 finishers for the Vikings.
The capper came in the 400 free relay, where Fremd's Sam Childs made up a few yards in the final 100 to seal the Vikings' win with 377 points. Loyola finished with 347.
"When you're in the water and looking over and seeing the guy there, it's really kind of cool," Childs said of the big finish.
In 400, Childs joined Sean Gonzalez, Spencer Sophie and Dustin Anderson for the 3:25.63 win.
The energized Vikings kept going at the end of the meet with Andrew Heideman (1:05.03) and Mike Moravek (1:05.33) going 1-2 in the breaststroke. Varun Shivakumar won the back in 55.51.
"We always had a good tail end of the meet," LaBeau said. "This year we have a lot of strong guys coming at us from all directions."
Shivakumar also won the IM (2:03.94) while Tony Palcheck topped the 200 free. Childs (51.62) and Sophie (52.36) went 1-2 in the 100.
After Loyola in the team standings was St. Ignatius (298). Prospect (265) took fourth, followed by Jacobs/Dundee-Crown (220), St. Viator (178), Wheeling (143), Nazareth (84) and Notre Dame (49).
Prospect took fourth in all the relays, beginning with Timothy O'Grady, Andrew Bowman, Charlie Mau and Eric Opland in the medley relay (1:48:66).
"Fourth place is good," said Prospect coach Dick Mortensen. "This is quality competition. We swam really well for the middle of the week."
Mau took third in the fly (57.68) and joined O'Grady, Bowman and Matt Reiner in the 200 free relay (1:39.39). Chrs Hoffman, Peter Nocchi, Joe Lakner and Edward Martin swam the 400 free relay (3:43.37).
"Our relays did really well," Mortensen said. "We're starting to get quality depth. These guys want do good."
Jacobs took fifth in the medley relay (1:49.38) with Dan Geske, Nick Pankau, Sean Kelly and Ryan Krug. Pankau, Kelly, Alec Schmidt and Krug also took fifth in the 200 free relay (1:40.44). Pankau's fourth-place finish in the breaststroke (1:05.91) was less than a second off the winning pace.
"(We had) no seniors in the meet," said Jacobs coach Rick Andresen, whose team has been swimming a tough practice schedule. "I thought they swam really tired tonight. They looked fatigued. It's the beginning of the season and we have a long way to go."
Robert Vavrik, Eric Primdahl, Billy Clifford and Nick Balcerak swam a 3:47.23 fifth place in 400 free relay for St. Viator.
"(My team) did excellent," said Lions coach Blake Hineman. "I'm seeing a lot (of guys step up), especially here at this meet. I was really happy with how they swam today. It's all stuff to build on for the future."
Balcerak added a fifth-place in the 200 free (2:00.17) while Clifford was fifth in the 500 (5:42.06).
Erik Maczko swam a 56.06 to win the butterfly for Wheeling after joining Seth Pawlow, Norbert Gajos and Andy Prelletz in the medley relay (1:56.80). Alan Sears took seventh in the 500 (5:44.69) for the Wildcats.
"We were trying to get a baseline to see where we're at," said Wheeling coach John Fournier. "Some of the guys swam really well; some of the guys swam where I expected.
"We looking pretty good right now. We're feeling strong. We'll see what happens."