Libertyville settles for share of first in NSC

There was a sense of inevitability to the drama that enfolded in the North Suburban Conference swim meet at Vernon Hills.

When Libertyville defeated Lake Forest in the regular season on the way to a perfect conference season, the Wildcats secured the victory by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay.

After spirited competition throughout Saturday, the outcome once again came down to the final event.

"I don't think there was any scenario where it wouldn't have come down to the last relay," Libertyville coach Chris Wetteland said.

"We wanted it to come down to the final race," Libertyville's Stevie Wimmer said.

This time, Lake Forest got the better of Libertyville.

Lake Forest (3:14.92) finished second in the relay, fractions of a second in ahead of Libertyville (3:14.92). Stevenson (3:14.50) came in first.

As a result, Lake Forest (302 points) edged Libertyville (299.5) for first place and denied the Wildcats an outright conference championship. The two teams are considered co-champs since Libertyville already captured the regular-season title.

Libertyville had a slight lead on Lake Forest going into the anchor leg, but highly regarded Mitch Stoehr was able to catch up.

"Anytime Mitch is on the end you better have a big lead," Wetteland said. "We would have liked to win outright, but we're happy to squeeze by Lake Forest the first time."

Added senior Danny LeJeune: "It was pretty devastating at first, but all of our guys swam so fast. It was just (Lake Forest) had great times, too."

Stevenson senior Duncan Partridge passed Stoehr to bring the relay home for teammates Jamie Clark, Ty Kuper and Matt Duncan. Partridge also placed first in the 50 freestyle (21.19) and the 100 freestyle (47.29).

"He wasn't going to let anybody beat him," said Stevenson coach Susan Whitehouse, whose team finished third (257).

There was plenty of excitement and tension throughout the race.

"In all the years I've been involved with high school swimming, I've never seen that type of finish," Vernon Hills coach Kedric Greenawalt said.

Mundelein (187.50) and Warren (106) were fourth and fifth, respectively. Vernon Hills took sixth (92) in the seven-team field.

Libertyville's Ben Glick, LeJeune, Kegan Rogers and John Blankenhorn (1:39.97) did cruise to an almost two-second margin of victory in the 200 medley relay.

Glick placed first in the 100 backstroke (55.51). LeJeune was second in both the 200 individual medley (2:04.19) and the 100 breaststroke (1:02.78). Wimmer was third in the 50 freestyle (22.39) as well as the 100 freestyle (49.29).

Rogers (52.94) finished second in the 100 butterfly, just behind Warren's Kirk Gagliardo (52.68).

"This was his fastest time and he's not even close to being rested yet," Wetteland said.

Gagliardo was second in the 50 freestyle (21.78). His younger brother, Karter, had solid races in the 100 freestyle (52.39) and 200 freestyle (1:56.93).

"It's starting to look like he's going to follow in his big brother's footsteps," Warren coach Erik Rogers said.

Mundelein's Patrick Falconer continued to emerge. He was second in the 200 freestyle (1:45.83). Teammate Kevin Coughlin placed second in the 100 freestyle (48.53).

In diving, Stevenson's Matt Stiefel (319.70) and Mundelein's David Rieck (305.85) distanced themselves from the field.

In honor of the conference meet, the majority of Vernon Hills' swimmers and coaches were sporting Mohawk haircuts.

"We wanted to go a little farther than the (typical) bleached hair," Greenawalt said. "It was a team solidarity kind of thing."