Barrington, BG find post-holiday success
If you're involved with boys swimming, you know that the holiday break is nothing to look forward to.
Long, hard practices get the athletes ready for the second half of the season.
Coming out of that training, host Buffalo Grove gauged its progress on Friday with one of the toughest measuring sticks around -- Barrington.
"Fighting the juggernaut is a hard thing," said Buffalo Grove coach Jamie Klotz. "This is a meet we've pointed to all season. It was exciting for us to be able to swim the level of competition that Barrington offers."
While the competition was there on both sides, the meet belonged to the Broncos with a 115-71 Mid-Suburban crossover win.
The meet opened with quite a race as Barrington's Mike Byron, Ben Redpath, Brian Marko and Dan Comyn touched out BG's Mike Hausfeld, Jeff Grossich, Adrian Sadkowski and Daniel Karpiyevich 1:45.72-1:45.79.
"It was a good meet," said Barrington coach Jim Bart. "Buffalo Grove had a number of good efforts and so did we. There were a lot of nice races -- I was really happy."
It was also a good night for Barrington's Sam Bartnett. He swam a lifetime best 2:04.68 in the IM while a new strategy in is 500 (4:55.64) shaved a few seconds off that time.
"I wasn't really happy with where I've been (in the 500)," he said. "I got in tonight and changed my strategy a little bit. Normally, I try to go out a little easier. Before the meet, we talked about going out hard in all our races so that's what I did. It worked out well for me."
Barnett also recognized his team's effort.
"At this point in the season, everyone's coming off winter break and everyone's expecting to be tired," he said. "All things considered, we did a really good job of showing up today. We had great efforts all the way around."
Justin Yu added two more firsts for the Broncos in the 200 free (1:48.73) and 100 (49.59), where he edged teammate Nick Santoro (49.72).
Santoro won the 50 (22.60) with other wins coming from Greg Alexander in the butterfly (59.50) and Redpath in the breaststroke (1:05.03).
"We had an outstanding Christmas break," added Bart of his team's training. "Our boys did a real nice job over 16 workouts over break. Our kids did a nice job -- each and every one of them. We swam right about where we need to be."
Barrington diver Tim Karsten scored 204.50 to add another win.
The Bison were also full of great efforts.
In the second leg of the 400 free relay, Sadkowski got ahead and helped lead Brad Lotzer, Karpiyevich and Hausfeld to a 3:28.22 win. Earlier, Sadkowski, Lotzer, Karpiyevich and Grossich went 1:34.67 to win the 200 free relay.
Hausfeld swam a 58.73 to win the backstroke.
"A lot of guys stepped up and we had personal bests all over the place," Klotz said. "(This meet) is also about handling the pressure. Initially, we were a little nervous but as the meet went on, we had some good swims across the board. I'm really pleased with the result."
• Fast swims from two-event winners Charlie Mau and Timothy O'Grady helped Prospect get past Palatine 118-65. Adam Heckelsmiller had wins in the 50 and breaststroke for the Pirates.
• Fremd's Varun Shivakumar, Sean Gonzalez and Jeff Freund won two individual events apiece in the Vikings' 131-55 win over Rolling Meadows.
• Matt O'Hagan and Pat Cullen's winning efforts contributed to Maine West's 108-78 win over Highland Park in Central Suburban action.
• In Friday's editions, Hersey diver Jeff Mitchem was incorrectly listed as a Conant competitor. Mitchem scored 170.95 points to win diving for the Huskies.