West Aurora divers take 5th and 6th at sectionals
It wasn't the greatest day for the Neuqua Valley boys swimming team, but the Wildcats took care of business.
Neuqua, considered a championship contender at next weekend's state meet at Evanston High School, won Saturday's Naperville Central sectional, edging the host Redhawks 281-276.
Both teams qualified all three of their relay teams and all their potential scorers at state.
"Our No. 1 priority was just to get everyone through today," said Brian Alden, who won the 50- and the 100-yard freestyle, the two races in which he'll be trying to get this third straight state championship next week. "It was also nice to win our first sectional trophy."
West Aurora's Corey Buzzard was fifth in diving (375.40) and Vinni Soto (361.50) was sixth. Diving coach Sue Brennan-McGuire expects them both to qualify for state.
"The last three years Corey's always beaten me," Soto said. "This year I was winning constantly up to this meet. Today I was landing my entry and my takeoffs were good. To make state would be the icing on the cake. Its what we've been working for all season."
"We're hoping to get six guys from this sectional to state," Brennan-McGuire said. "They all deserve to go. Corey and Vinni are gentlemen, they dive hard and they practice hard. Having two boys qualify for state in addition to Liz Chollet who qualified for the girls, would make me very proud."
The number of qualifiers in the sectional was down by, at least, half this year, a fact that was attributed to the faster state qualifying times for every event and the transfer of strong teams such as Marmion and Wheaton co-op to another sectional.
"We had some unfortunate misses by guys who were on the bubble," said Neuqua Valley coach Chad Allen. "But there were a lot of positives today."
He cited qualifying races by Brien Gerber in the 200 individual medley, John Mikuzis in the 100 backstroke and Kevin Cordes in the 100 breaststroke as outstanding efforts.
Besides the wins by Alden, the Wildcats also took the 200 freestyle, with Kevin Overholt and Hans Peters finishing 1-2, and the 200 medley relay, with Mikuzis, Alden, Ryan Farmer and Peters delivering the victory.
In addition Peters won the 500 freestyle, Chris Murray took the diving, with Gus Appenbrink finishing fourth. Overholt was second in the 100 freestyle and Farmer qualified in the 100 butterfly.
"All the guys will be much, much stronger next week," Allen said.
It was a strong meet for the second-place Redhawks, who were led by Bobby Rickert's and Ben Reasons' 1-2 finish in the 100 breaststroke, and the winning 200 freestyle relay team of Reasons, Tyler Hsieh, Chris Canene and Matt O'Brien.
O'Brien also qualified in both the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly, Rickert and Chris Depew will swim at state in the 200 IM, Danny Tucker qualified in the 50 freestyle, Mike Greco in the diving, Tyler Hsieh in the 100 freestyle and Jeff Depew in the 100 backstroke.
"It's always great to come as close as we did to a great team like Neuqua Valley," Rickert said. "I hope we can be faster and come as close next weekend."
Naperville North's Conor Handley won both the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke, and he'll be going for the state title in both races next week.
Handley also led off on the winning 400 freestyle relay followed by Phil Lechowicz, Jackson Hill and Will Heidler.
"It meant a lot to win that relay," Handley said. "Neuqua and Central both won a relay, and we wanted to take one for North."
The Huskies' 200 free relay team also qualified as did Hill in both the 50 and the 100 freestyle and Heidler in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke. Diver Eric Heyson finished fourth.
The Huskies were third in the team standings with 206 points, followed by Waubonsie Valley with 141, Lockport (140), Oswego East (99), Benet (95) and Morris (49).
Waubonsie Valley qualified its 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relays as well as Jim Zuponeck in the 100 breaststroke and Jack Poletto in the 100 butterfly, while Connor Binnig in the 100 breaststroke was Benet's lone qualifier.