Tiltges helps push Saints past Lake Park
Competing in the first of two dual meets during finals week, St. Charles East's boys swim team showed its mettle Tuesday afternoon at the Norris Recreation Center.
Moments after his victorious 100-yard breaststroke finish, Ken Tiltges returned to rally his 400 freestyle relay team to a first-place finish while helping lift the Saints to a 99-83 Upstate Eight Conference triumph over visiting Lake Park.
"That was a tough relay," said Saints coach Joe Cabel. "Ken was just coming out of the breaststroke. That's a hard combo. But he battled with it, had a good split and pulled the win out so that was awesome."
Cabel was pleased with his team's intestinal fortitude even though he admitted it wasn't the prettiest of victories.
"Sometimes if you win ugly and you still win, it's a good win," said Cabel. "We're in the middle of finals right now so trying to stay focused is a bit of a challenge, but they did a good job.
"We looked better than we did last Saturday (at the College Events Invitational). We just didn't have the racing edge last week. It came back tonight."
The day's closest event actually resulted in a dead heat, as Saints senior B.J. Roth and Lancers freshman Nathan Schingoethe posted identical times (58.83) in the 100 back.
"I'm not really feeling that well," said Roth. "My time was a little off still but compared to how I was feeling, I was happy with that."
Roth also had praise for his junior teammate Tiltges, who earlier captured the 200 IM (2:05.33) in addition to his breaststroke and 400 free relay contributions.
"Ken did really well today, especially in that relay," said Roth. "He swam the 100 breaststroke and had an awesome swim in that relay right at the end there. Everyone did really well in the last relay -- and the meet was pretty close at that point."
Lake Park coach Dan Witteveen also liked what he saw from Schingoethe and double-event champion Bryant Honsa.
"Nathan is swimming really well right now," said Witteveen. "He's got an outside shot at making the (state) cut.
"Coming into the beginning of the year, he was like a 1:04, 1:05, and now he's at 58. That's pretty good."
As was Honsa's individual effort, which included victories in the 200 and 500 free. His time in the latter race (4:42.93) was just six-tenths of a second off his first-place sectional clocking (4:42.33) from a year ago.
"I think he's got a great shot at doing some damage this year," said Witteveen. "He looks smooth."
Honsa anchored the Lancers' first-place 200 free relay finish just a few minutes after his grueling 500 free victory.
"It hurts so bad to go into that event (200 free relay) right after the 500," said Honsa, who was joined by teammates Bryan Medema, Aaron Casper and Marcus Julian.
St. Charles East also received victories from Carnell (50, 100 free) and Blake Pleasant (100 fly), while Tim Frawley (diving) added an individual title for Lake Park.