Titles within Wimmer's reach
On the pool deck, surrounded by his friends and teammates, Stevie Wimmer is one cool 'Cat.
Once the Libertyville Wildcat and future Kentucky Wildcat swimmer hits the water, he turns wild - and it's the water and the five other swimmers in the pool that best watch out.
"Once I hit the water, it's all business," Wimmer said. "There is no time for messing around. It's time to go to work."
The office that Wimmer will go to work at this weekend is one that he has not found all that friendly in his swimming career. Evanston High School, site of this weekend's IHSA state swimming and diving championships, is home to what Wimmer called, "the worst meet of his life," some two years ago.
"It was just a bad day all around," Wimmer said. "I was still coming back from my shoulder injury and had some bad coaching and everything was just bad about my experience there."
Starting today, Wimmer will try to put that bad day in the rearview mirror as he is one of a host of Wildcats competing.
The diving portion starts at 9 a.m. with the preliminaries in the swimming events slated to start at 3:30 p.m.
Wimmer enters the day as the top seed in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and is also a key contributor to the 200 and 400 freestyle relays for the Wildcats.
"He has the ability to go the times and block out everything else - all of the other distractions," said Libertyville coach Kevin Zakrzewski. "He just has to have faith in his ability and just go out and race."
This season has marked a return of sorts for Wimmer. After taking last season off to compete with his club team, he has embraced his senior season as a high school swimmer.
"I came back for a couple of reasons," Wimmer said. "First, I wanted to come back to make up for lost time. And second, I wanted to be with my boys and swim with my friends again."
His friends on the deck with him at the state meet include Benjamin Snader (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke) and relay mates Brad Ostmeyer, Chris Marr and Daniel Guerrero. Diver Teddy Kelley will also compete for the Wildcats.
Mundelein senior Pat Falconer also knows a little about competing at state. The Michigan State-bound Falconer will race for the third straight year at state and aims to become just the second Mustang and first since Justin Mathias in 1999 to win a state championship.
Falconer will race with his brother Sean, Jeff Anderson, David Dickinson, Connor Black, Will Davidson and Bryan Wiener. The elder Falconer will compete in four races total with the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle his individual races.
While the Mustangs boast one of their biggest groups at state in their history, Warren has its best and biggest group ready to race at state. The Blue Devils will start the day with a pair of divers in Tommy Howard and Sage Stephens and figure to ride the wave from there.
Leading the pack for Warren is the Conway family. Danny, Sean and Matt Conway will all race at state for the Blue Devils with all three seeking to make the finals in individual events. Chad Church and Ben Abuela will race on relays.
Stevenson, which won the North Suburban Conference championship and its own sectional, will again come well-represented to state. The Patriots are led by senior Josh Hodges and a group of talented sophomores in Ryota Kuwahara, Chris Hodges and Langston Fitts. Junior Adam Salzman will compete for Stevenson in the 500 freestyle.
The Patriots best bets for medals will come in each of the three relays. The 400 freestyle relay comes in seeded seventh.
James Landry of Grayslake North will make another appearance at state in the 100 backstroke, while Lakes freshman Daniel Le will race at state for the first time. Kevin Lenz of Vernon Hills will get his chance to race at state again in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
Another freshman, Michael Hamann of Cary-Grove, will race in a pair of events, while Jacobs sophomore Alex Elston will get his chance in the 100 butterfly.