Fantastic finish for Fremd's Freund at state finals
Fremd junior Jeff Freund likes to set up his prerace plan to just where he thinks he needs to be during his 500-yard freestyle. Usually, once Freund does that, he sticks to his plan, and the results are pretty positive.
It may seem that he is stubborn, but the results speak for themselves.
In the consolation heat of the 500 freestyle on Saturday in the boys swimming state finals at Evanston Township High School, Freund knew he had just one direction to go - up.
He came in as the 12th and final seed overall, and was hoping for 11th or better. It was clear from the start that he was going to exceed his goal.
"I could see it early on that he was going to finish much better than 11th," said Fremd coach Nicole LaBeau. "He set his mind that he wanted to go 4:40 and he went out and did that, too."
Saddled in lane 6, Freund took the race out just at the pace he wanted and took proceeded to hold off junior Ben Kanute of Marmion to win the heat and finish seventh overall in a best time of 4:40.54.
"I knew that there was nowhere for me to go but up," Freund said. "I wanted to get under 4:40, but that is still a very good swim."
The team championship race was a classic, coming down to the final race of the afternoon - the 400 freestyle relay. In it, Naperville Central swam to a state title in 3:04.93. The 32 points gave the Redhawks 156 and their first state team championship in eight years. Rival Neuqua Valley finished second with 153 points followed by defending champion New Trier right behind at 151.
Peoria Richwoods junior Matt Elliot captured a pair of state titles, including the 100 breastroke crown. In that race, Elliott lowered the state record which he set in prelims the night before with a time of 54.74.
No one could really blame Mundelein senior Pat Falconer for being just a little tired after his weekend.
In two days of competition including Saturday's finals, Falconer competed in 8 total events and swam over 1,600 yards.
Yet on Saturday, after just having competed in the final 500 freestyle race of his Mundelein career, the Michigan State-bound Falconer still had enough to muster up the lead leg of the Mustangs' 200 freestyle relay team.
"The 50 free is not normally my race," Falconer said with a smile. "I just went out and gave everything I had in that race to try and help the team."
Falconer helped the Mustangs relay team t"I think I am still just running on adrenaline," Falconer said. "Come an hour or two from now or later tonight I will come down from all of this and crash."
Individually, Falconer swam to a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:40.67) and a fourth-place effort in the 500 freestyle (4:33.27).
His four medals made him just the second Mustangs swimmer - the first since Justin Mathias did it in 1999 - to earn four medals in one state meet.
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