Maine South makes big splash at annual Conant invite
No blocks. An unconventional scoring system. You could say that the 19th annual Conant Invitational was just a warm-up meet for conference and sectionals.
And you'd be wrong.
By looking at the two dozen or so red-clad Maine South family members and friends armed with cameras, taking photos of the beaming smiles on the Hawks' faces, you'd realize that winning this 39-event invite means a lot.
"What I like about the scoring system is it really helps your second and third swimmers," said Maine South coach Chris Deger, whose team finished third at last season's event. "It's a real nice chance to reward them."
It was a complete team effort for the Hawks (249), who along with their second-place tie with Niles West (62) in the Class A Division, won the Class B (71), Class C (78) and Class F Divisions (38).
Niles West finished second overall with 231, ahead of Conant (207) and Downers Grove North (171). The Wolves opened the Class A portion of the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay (1:45.87) as Konner Scott, Valeriy Pinskiy, AJ Chen-Young and Dan Toy held off Maine South (1:50.09) and Conant (1:51.68).
Scott followed that with the Class B meet record in the 200 IM at 2:07.6 and a second-place effort in the 100 back (57.29). Chen-Young took first in the Class A 100 fly (56.83).
In the Class A 200 free, Downers Grove North junior Ryan Downey took top honors at 1:53.56, almost a second ahead of Mundelein's Ricky Lukacs (1:54.55).
"I'm more of a distance swimmer, so I usually have a pretty good second half of my races," Downey said.
True to his word, Downey won the 500 free in 5:00.19, more than 10 seconds ahead of Maine South's Kevin Thompson (5:10.23) and Lukacs (5:10.30).
After taking first in the 50 free (23.45), outlasting Toy (23.60) and Conant sophomore Will Landgren (23.89), Mundelein's Kevin Coughlin held off Maine South's Andrew Saloman by nearly two seconds (49.39 to 51.11) to win the Class A 100 free.
Loughlin picked up another first-place medal with Patrick Falconer, Lukacs and Will Davidson as the Mustangs won the 200 free relay in 1:34.35, ahead of Conant (1:36.73) and Maine South (1:37.79). And Loughlin combined for another first-place finish, this time in the 400 free relay as he teamed with Falconer, Lukacs and Zach Purol.
Maine South sophomore Jared DeGrazia won the 100 backstroke in 56.75, edging out Scott by less that a half-second.
"We're big rivals," DeGrazia said of Scott.
Aaron Johnson took first for Schaumburg in the Class A breaststroke (1:04.69), and Maine South's Kyle Benedix won the Class A diving competition with 370.05, followed by Niles West's Andy Foerch (340.25) and Schaumburg's Joe Buckley (317.70).
In his last home meet, Conant senior Michael McGuire took third in the 200 free (1:54.78), followed by another third-place effort in the 100 free (52.65).
"I would have liked my times to be a little lower … it's my last home meet, I would like to see some big time drops," said McGuire, a third-year varsity swimmer, who's narrowed his college choices to Purdue, Illinois and Bradley.
Conant's Chris Emery, also competing at home for the final time, finished fourth in the 500 free (5:10.80) and took second (2:08.71) in the 200 IM behind Falconer, who won in 2:06.53.
"We were pretty even the whole time," said the Mustangs' sophomore, who later set the Class B record in the 100 free at 50.65. "I saw him and I thought 'I'm not giving up here' and I gave it all I got."
Although the Cougars couldn't celebrate a repeat invitational victory, they took time before the swimming portion to celebrate the accomplishments and efforts of the five seniors who were competing in their final home meet.
"One of the reasons we always end up with Lane 6 in the 400 free relay is because we're close to our group and everyone can be as much as family as we can," said Conant coach Brian Drenth. "The great thing is that the season isn't over, we still have another four weeks."