Cary-Grove's Curtis shines at state

For any fan of swimming, it was a state meet session to remember on Friday at New Trier.

With four state records broken and another handful in danger of becoming history in Saturday's final sessions, it was a breathtaking display.

Glenbrook South's 200-yard freestyle relay had the performance of the day with a time of 1:22.63. That bettered the existing state record by almost a second and also eclipsed the national high school record of 1:22.80 set in 1996.

Two state records came from New Trier, which produced superlative swims across the board to take control of the team race. Trevians senior Michael Dominski produced a state record time of 48.19 in the 100 fly, and even the second-fastest time, a 48.65 produced by Riverside-Brookfield's Graham Risley, would have bettered the existing state mark.

New Trier's 200 medley relay finished in 1:31.78, more than a second and a half better than Oak Park's record from 1997.

Neuqua Valley senior Kevin Overholt broke the state record in the 100 free, finishing in 44.11. That's a shade faster than Olympic gold medalist Matt Grevers was in 2002.

In keeping with that theme of achievement, Cary-Grove's Dist. 155 co-op team had a most memorable performance.

Senior Brent Curtis led the way, delivering a time of 46.23 in the 100 free to qualify for the fastest championship heat in state history. He was in the same heat as Overholt during qualifying, but didn't let the fact that he was trailing discourage him. Curtis essentially kept pace with Overholt over the second half of the race and turned in the fifth-best time of the day.

Success like this doesn't just happen on a whim, as coach Jim Andriakos explained:

"That swim you just saw, that started back in September," he said. "We were eating together in a restaurant, and we started talking about how to swim this race, what it would take. We went over it in detail, writing down what had to happen - and it was almost exactly what happened here today. We can fine-tune a few things for finals and see if he can go faster."

Curtis also qualified for the consolation heat of the 100 breastroke in 58.97, and another senior Michael Kinross, advanced to the consolation heat of the 100 butterfly. Kinross had the 11th-best qualifying time in the 100 fly, 51.18 - a time that in many years would win the even outright.

Bartlett seniors Josh Hasenberg and Mike Brady managed to deliver their best performances in their final meet.

Hasenberg narrowly missed advancing in the 50 free, finishing 14th at 21.36, and in the 100 free, finishing tied for 13th at 47.10.

Brady finished the 50 free in 22.07, tied for 28th.

"We had three races, and we had three time drops," said Bartlett coach Carl Metzke. "Of course, you'd love to get into finals, but this is a super fast meet."