Bartlett's Brady ready for state

Bartlett-Streamwood co-op senior swimmer Mike Brady knows how fast the 50 freestyle can go and how little room for error there is.

"I missed it (state) last year by a few hundredths of a second," said Brady.

So Brady made sure to work on improving the beginning of his races this year. And that improvement helped net him his first berth in the IHSA state swimming finals today at New Trier High School in Winnetka.

"The 50 is such a short race. The start is so influential," said Brady. "I've really improved my start and my entry into the water. It's definitely critical."

Brady credits his progress to a number of different factors.

"We've had increased strength training this season," said Brady. "This is the second year we've hit the weights hard. And we do timed swims in practice. That's helped the sprint aspect a lot. You're learning how to race in races. You can put in a lot of yardage in the pool, but sometimes its garbage yardage if you don't know how to use it on race day. So we've been working on starts and turns and race pace and that's helped us to do better in actual races."

Brady feels he is more than ready to compete under the scrutiny of the season's biggest race of the year.

"In the 50 anything can happen because it's such a short race," said Brady. "I'm going to tell myself to go out there and get the job done. I have to get off the blocks fast and have a fast start and an explosive streamline and then have a good turn and bring it home. If you do those things it will take you to Saturday. Those are the basics to being successful in that race."

Brady is also excited to have reached both of his personal goals this year. He qualified for state and also won the 100 freestyle at the Lockport invitational. Brady will continue his swimming career next season at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Josh Hasenberg, Brady's teammate, is no stranger to the state meet. Hasenberg, who took his junior off to swim with his Wheaton club team (where he qualified for nationals), is making his third state trip in as many tries. He's looking to add to his cache of three state medals (6th in the breast as a freshman and 7th in both the breast and IM as a sophomore)

Hasenberg, who will play football at Colgate University this fall, qualified in both the 50 and 100.

"I'm normally not a freestyle sprinter," said Hasenberg. "I've been working at getting my stroke down to where I can be a sprinter. I've been working on my starts and turns. I didn't feel like those were my best events going into the season, but with football season ending so late, I didn't get that much swimming in before. I didn't think I was in shape enough to do the breaststroke or the IM. It made sense because I can swim freestyle relatively fast."

Hasenberg anticipates additional time drops today.

"I should have some good time drops. I haven't tapered yet," said Hasenberg. "I've gotten a lot bigger and that strength has helped with turns and starts. I have to make sure I keep a level head out there. I can't go in to the meet banking on making it to Saturday. I have to go in there (today) and work hard and stay positive."

The District 155 co-op team (Crystal Lake schools and Cary-Grove) will also be well-represented at the state meet.

Both Michael Kinross and Brent Curtis qualified in two individual events and are part of the state-qualifying 200 medley relay along with teammates Christian Weber (freestyle leg) and Edward Griswold (backstroke leg). Kinross will handle the butterfly portion of the race, while Curtis will swim the breaststroke leg.

Kinross qualified for state in both his sophomore and junior seasons (qualifying in 4 total events last year). He'll compete individually in the butterfly and the 200 IM.

"I've worked on my underwater turns and my underwater kick a lot over the summer," said Kinross of his butterfly improvement. "I've worked on my turns in the high school season. I can definitely see a difference. Coming out of turns, I'm coming out even or sometimes ahead of guys I used to be behind."

Kinross has focused equal attention on his IM improvement this season.

"I've gotten better with my backstroke and breaststroke, no doubt," said Kinross. "I've worked on the IM since the first day of the high school season and have worked on it every day trying to improve on the little things and it finally has paid off."

Having previous state experience will be another ace in the hole for Kinross heading into the New Trier pool today.

"Sophomore year was a complete whirlwind," said Kinross, who will continue his swimming career at Eastern Michigan University. "Last year, I got the hang of it and learned some things about swimming multiple events. Hopefully I can put it all together this year. I'd like to get into the top 12. That's the goal."

Dundee-Crown-Jacobs co-op senior Nick Pankau will also compete in the breaststroke at New Trier.

"I've improved probably the most on my turns and my underwater pullouts. It's really kind of essential to the stroke," said Pankau. "It keeps your momentum going off the ball and keeps the momentum going forward."

Good, old-fashioned elbow grease is something Pankau credits his state berth to.

"I think practice really helped," said Pankau. "The coaches watched my turns carefully and we made little adjustments from the previous meets."

Pankau, who will attend West Virginia University this fall (he has a 3.6 grade-point average), knows he will have to be at the top of his game today.

"I have to keep the mentality that I know there are people there that are better than me," said Pankau. "You have to keep the mindset that you have to be fast and you have to make every little thing perfect."