Naperville teams gang up on state competition

Three Naperville high school teams will contend for a state trophy today at the state boys swimming finals at Evanston Twp.

In Friday's preliminary meet Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central, both of which qualified all three relays and numerous individual qualifiers for the top sixth, are in the best position to challenge defending state champion New Trier for this year's state title.

Naperville North, which sent two relays and a bunch of individual swims to the top six and a third relay to the consolation bracket, is also in position to finish in the top three in the team standings.

"This is one of the most exciting state meets in a long time," said Neuqua Valley coach Chad Allen. "Anyone who wins two relays can win state. It's very close between us Naperville Central, New Trier and Naperville North."

Though no official scores are kept in the preliminaries, the sheer number of top-six and consolation-round qualifiers is a strong indication of who will be fighting for those top spots.

The day got off to a great start for the Wildcats as diver Ted Wagner finished fourth and in good position to battle George Doran of Wheaton co-op, who is just ahead of him, for third place when the divers finish their last three rounds Saturday.

"I'm really happy with my dives today," Wagner said. "Tomorrow's dives are a little harder, but I'm confident because I've been doing my hard dives well."

"Our expectation coming in was to be in the top five and Ted's performance this morning was phenomenal," said Neuqua Valley diving coach Gerry Petit. "We have a four-year plan, and when we come in next year we're coming in with the idea that Ted will win the whole thing."

The 200 medley relay shapes up as an exciting battle among three record-breaking teams.

On Friday Naperville Central broke the Evanston pool record in its heat with a 1:33.23.

Then New Trier broke the Redhawks' record with a 1:32.56 in the very next heat.

Neuqua then topped everyone with another new standard with Grant Betulius, Kevin Cordes, Brien Gerber and Andrew Bratsos going 1:32.01 in the last heat.

"We put ourselves in good position for (Saturday)," Gerber said. "But it's going to be tough. I think we surprised some people today, but we can give them more surprises (Saturday)."

The Wildcats' Betulius won the 100 backstroke, and defending state champion Cordes finished second in the 100 breaststroke.

Hans Peters finished fourth in both the 200 and 100 freestyle races and Bratsos was fifth in the 100 butterfly.

The three Naperville schools finished 1-2-3 in the 400 freestyle relay as the Huskies finished on top followed by the Redhawks and the Wildcats.

"It was pretty thrilling for the Naperville schools to finish as the top three in the 400," Allen said.

For Naperville Central, Jeff Depew finished second in the 200 IM and third in the 100 backstroke, Danny Tucker was second in the 50 freestyle and Nate Weeks was sixth in the 100 butterfly.

The Huskies are in line to make up a lot of points in individual races because Will Heidler was fourth in the 200 IM and sixth in the 100 backstroke, Andy Eiken finished fifth in the 200 freestyle, Kevin Butz was fifth in the 500 freestyle, Joel Demuth was fifth in the 100 freestyle and Nick Bessler was sixth in the 200 IM.

Hinsdale Central's Danny Thomson won the 500 freestyle and finished fourth in the 200 IM and Hinsdale South's Jordan Dyson leads the diving going into the second day of competition.

Other DuPage County swimmers who qualified for today's finals were Mike Reed of Downers Grove North, fifth in the 50 freestyle, Collin Hogan of Wheaton co-op, sixth in the 500 freestyle and Brett Buchanan of Willowbrook, who was sixth in the 100 breaststroke.

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