Scouting: Northwest suburban swimming

Top area teams: Barrington and Fremd seem to be the class of the Mid-Suburban League once again. Last season, Barrington won the conference meet but Fremd prevailed and won sectional. The Broncos lost several key members of last year's undefeated league champion squad but return state meet competitors Justin Yu and Brian Marko as well as Joe Zavoli, Tim Karsten and Greg Alexander.

Fremd seems to have the most quality back from last season; senior Sam Childs scored state points in the 100 and 200 freestyle, and Varun Shivakumar scored in the 100 backstroke. They'll be complemented by senior Sean Carroo, juniors Sean Gonzales and Anthony Palcheck (sprints), sophomore Jeff Freund (distance) and senior Evan Ruggiero (diving). In the MSL East, Prospect has three individuals with state meet experience (Charlie Mau, Andrew Bowman, Tyler Bengtsen) and hopes to contend for the division championship along with defending divisional champ Buffalo Grove, which returns four accomplished seniors (Adrian Sadkowski, Kevin Reilly, Matt Block and Matt Cooney).

Scouting reports: Elk Grove is loaded with optimism as coach Scott Gustafson has his largest and most competitive teams since the school's pool was completed five years ago. In addition to returners Scott Kemp, Derek Oswald, Bart Pienkowski, Alex Kraus and diver Kyle Carlson, the Grens are counting on big contributions from freshman breaststroker Marek Burtan and sophomore backstroker/freestyler Carl Sugihara.

At Wheeling, Tod Schwager (formerly at Hersey for eight years) is leading the program and will rely on contributions from returners Tim McDaniels, Ben Jasin, Seth Pawlow, Dimitry Peresada and Josh Glenn.

Hersey said farewell to an accomplished group of seniors, but none of them qualified for the state meet last year. Coach Rick Kerwin, a veteran of the sport beginning his first year as the Huskies' head coach, would like to see that change. His best candidates for the state meet are juniors John Poelking (200 IM, 100 back) and Matt Williams (200 IM, 100 breaststroke) and senior diver Pat Chamberlain, but he expects big contributions from John Hill, Vinny Ponzo, Chris Workman, Stephen Petro, Mike Gorey and frosh standout Alex Niemiec.

Rolling Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta likes the initiative she's seeing from a small but capable group. A.J. Adams (freestyle), Tyler Diers (sprints), Danny Vockeroth (breaststroke) and James Waterloo (IM, fly) are way ahead of schedule and training hard.

Palatine returns a young but solid group that seems hungry for more. "This year's team has worked hard since last season," said coach Katie Kupka. "Though they are a young team they are hoping to continue to be comeptitive and are willing to put in the effort to do that."

Hoffman Estates sees an opportunity for improvement. Though the Hawks lost some key performers, coach Josh Schumacher likes what he sees from Alex Jessee (backstroke), Brian Brajczewski (distance), Tim Prusnick (distance/fly), Christian Laureano (breaststroke), Dom Cannella (sprints), Danny Alvarado (diving) and Josh Van Hee (fly).

First-year St. Viator coach Alfonso Lopez, a Prospect grad, will have a young group building for the future but expects strong performances from senior Andy Brehm (breaststroke), juniors James Jensen (free, fly) and Eric Primdahl (fly) and sophomores Peter Cleary (backstroke) and Chris Miklius (distance).

Big picture: Lake Park senior Bryant Honsa and Downers Grove North senior Burke Sims figure to be well worth watching in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. Honsa edged Sims by less than 2 seconds to win the 500 last year, and both placed in the top six in the 200 free. Both Honsa and Sims are within range of the state record in the 500 ... Peoria Richwoods' Matt Elliott, who won an unprecedented two events as a freshman last season, is back in action. ... The only other returning state champ is senior Jacob Jarzen of Jacksonville (100 back) ... Defending champ Neuqua Valley graduated sprinting standout Brian Alden but returns middle-distance stalwart Kevin Overholt.

Local focus: Here's the a rundown of the area's top competitors for the coming season:

Backstroke - Fremd's Varun Shivakumar placed ninth in the state meet in the 100 backstroke (52.09) and is back for his senior season. Schaumburg's Chris Corbett, a two-time state qualifier as a sophomore, is back for his senior year after taking a year away from high school swimming. Barrington's Brian Marko placed 24th at state last season.

Breaststroke - Prospect senior Andrew Bowman and junior Tyler Bengtsen earned state-meet experience last year and hope to score points this time around. Barrington senior Justin Yu placed 18th at state last year, and senior Aaron Johnson of Schaumburg is also a state-meet veteran.

Butterfly - Barrington's Brian Marko is a state meet vet; senior Chris Mals and sophomore Dylan Weissman give Palatine a good presence.

IM - Junior Jeremy Stanton is one of Palatine's top returners. Fremd's Shivakumar qualified for state in this event last year.

Sprints - Sebastian Dorszewski is back for his senior year at Palatine. Leyden senior Hernando Sevilla missed the state cut by .01 last season. Meadows is hoping A.J. Adams can make state in the 100 , or possibly even the 200 or 500.

Distance - Fremd soph Jeff Freund earned a spot in last year's state meet after making incredible gains in just one year of high school swimming. Palatine is hoping for big things from junior Brad Ferris.

Medley relay - Schaumburg's front half of Corbett/Johnson is awfully strong; will the Saxons have enough on the tail end with Anthony Darovec and Mike Kehoe to break the team record of 1:39? Coach Tom Gallagher hopes so and thinks so. Fremd and Barrington both have the kind of depth to be strong here.

Freestyle relays - Barrington and Fremd have enough proven performers and lineup flexibility to field strong quarters. Elk Grove figures to be at its best in the 200 free relay.

Diving - Conant senior Nick Rizza placed 34th last season and is back in action, as is Fremd senior Evan Ruggiero, also a state qualifier.

You got cuts? State meet qualifying standards for Feb. 27-28 at New Trier are:

200 medley relay 1:40.23; 200 free 1:46.59; 200 IM 2:00.68; 50 free 22.21; 100 butterfly 53.80; 100 free 48.69; 500 free 4:50.25; 200 free relay 1:29.58; 100 back 55.07; 100 breaststroke 1:02.19; 400 free relay; 3:16.96.