Vets, underclassmen lead way for Jacobs/D-C
The Jacobs/Dundee-Crown boys co-op swimming team has the best of both worlds.
Coach Rick Andresen has a roster filled with both veteran and young talent.
Jacobs/D-C recently took second at the Harlem invitational and also finished fourth at the St. Viator invitational.
"We've got a good group of seniors and a good group of underclassmen," said Jacobs/D-C coach Rick Andresen. D-C senior Sean Kelly headlines a list of key returnees. Kelly qualified for state last year in the IM and the backstroke, but has been swimming the butterfly in the early part of the season.
Jacobs seniors Nick Pankau (breaststroke), Dan Geske (IM, backstroke) and Brian Kosel (fly, backstroke), along with junior Alec Schmidt (sprints) and sophomore Riley Quinlan (distance) and D-C sophomores Ryan Krug (distance, sprints) and Andrew Nemec will also be counted on. Pankau missed state last year in the breaststroke by a hundredth of a second.
Andresen is also pleased with his freshmen class, which features Alex Elston (sprints, fly), Ryan Quinlan (sprints, breaststroke) and Zach Barfield (various strokes).
"We've got 29 swimmers, so we've got good numbers," said Andresen. "We'll see how it all plays out."
District 155 co-op: The District 155 team has a number of key swimmers returning this year.
That group includes Cary-Grove senior Brent Curtis, who finished ninth in the state last year in the 100.
Crystal Lake South senior Michael Kinross is also back after qualifying for state in the fly and IM.
Cary-Grove junior Ed Griswold was a state relay qualifier last year, while junior Christian Weber returns and will swim the 50, 100 and possibly the fly.
Key newcomers to the team include Cary-Grove freshmen Joe Weber (sprints, fly) and Matt Dunlap (backstroke).
"We've got 37 swimmers this year and 23 of them have never been on a team before," said District 155 coach Jim Andriakos. "We've got a lot of new guys out. I think the Olympics helped. We've got freshmen and sophomores who are new to swimming. It will be interesting to see how we shape up."
Andriakos said he's heard from other programs that their numbers are also up this season.
"I was talking at an invite we were at with coaches from places like Maine East and Elk Grove, they have a lot of kids that had never come out before," said Andriakos. "The Olympics was a nice thing. It was a good thing what Michael Phelps did. Hopefully we'll all benefit from it. We need more kids to come out for swimming."
Andriakos said the team will have to be at the top of its game against Fox Valley Conference schools like Jacobs-D-C, McHenry and Woodstock.
"They are all good teams," said Andriakos. "These other teams have great swimmers and great coaches. Hopefully we can do well. We'll depend a lot on our seniors this year."
Cary-Grove also qualified its 200 and medley relays for the state meet last year. Each team returns 3 out of the 4 relay members. The 200 team has Curtis, Kinross and Christian Weber back, while the medley relay returns Griswold, Curtis and Kinross.
"It's good to have that experience back that the younger guys can look to," said Andriakos.
Bartlett-Streamwood co-op: The Bartlett-Streamwood team has also seen a spike in numbers (35 swimmers this year).
"That's an increase from the last couple of years," said Bartlett-Streamwood coach Carl Metzke.
Key contributors for Bartlett-Streamwood will include seniors Josh Hasenberg, Mike Brady (50, 100), Tim LaBud (backstroke, sprints) and Trace Pomplun (diving).
Hasenberg, the quarterback of the record-setting Bartlett football team this past fall, has returned after a 1-year hiatus. He qualified for state both is freshman and sophomore seasons (breaststroke as a freshman and breast and IM as a sophomore).
Freshmen Jake Hasenberg (Josh's younger brother) and Matt Ehrhardt will also help. Hasenberg is a distance swimmer, while Ehrhardt is a freestyle and IM swimmer.
"We're looking pretty solid," said Metzke. "This is probably the strongest team I've coached. We definitely have the potential to do better than we did last year."
Bartlett-Streamwood will compete in the West Chicago invitational Saturday.
"The West Chicago invite, we'd like to set the tone there for the rest of the season," said Metzke. "It's a good time to see what we are made of. There will be some good schools there."