Naperville Central not tired of winning
Every high school boys swimming team is feeling “beat up” and tired in January because of the heavy workload they go through over the holiday break.
But defending state champion Naperville Central is able to overcome the fatigue factor and keep on winning.
On Saturday the Redhawks took first place in five events and displayed their quality depth in most races, to win the Hinsdale South College Events meet by a comfortable margin.
The Redhawks scored 259.50 points to second-place Hinsdale Central’s 182. Fremd was third with 169. Barrington scored 164.50 and Waubonsie Valley was fifth with 159, followed by Wheaton co-op (153) and Lake Park (116).
“The boys are really tired,” said Redhawks coach Mike Adams. “But they’re doing everything they can. They’re working hard and they’re racing hard. We’re getting better and better every meet. Today showed that we have a nice cross-section of strengths.”
After Hinsdale Central’s Danny Thomson won the 1000 freestyle, the Redhawks 400 medley relay team consisting of Jeff Depew, Steven van Deventer, Nate Weeks and Pat May broke the meet record with a time of 335.87, more than seven seconds ahead of the Waubonsie Valley foursome of Steven Tan, Alex Ding, Adam Stacklin and Tyler Hunt.
That was followed by the Redhawks’ Sean Lehane’s win in the 200 freestyle in 1:48.50. In that race Wheaton’s Collin Hogan was second in 1:49.69 and Hinsdale Central’s duo of Max Morimoto and Mike DeSalle were third and fourth.
Depew won the 400 IM ahead of his teammate Weeks, and Nathan Schingoethe of Lake Park was third.
After Thomson took his second victory, winning the 500 freestyle, the event in which he won the state championship last year, Lehane also notched his second victory of the day, finishing the 200 backstroke in 1:54, ahead of the next four finishers Depew, Schingoethe, Stacklin and Tan.
And van Deventer topped of the day with a victory in the 200 breaststroke as Ding finished second.
To be sure, there were some disappointments for Naperville Central.
The Redhawks did not win the freestyle relays, placing a third in the 200 and second in the 800, the final event of the day.
“The medley relay was good, especially coming off Christmas break,” Adams said. “But other teams got the free relays, and we’re going to have work on cleaning that up as we go to the end of the year.”
Waubonsie Valley’s 200 freestyle relay team of Tony Simon, Eric Martina, Matt O’Brien and Tyler Hunt finished second, one spot in front of the Redhawks.
In addition to his second-place finish in the 200 free, Wheaton’s Hogan, who finished sixth at state last year in the 500, was fourth in that race on Saturday.
“Collin has been very strong in practice but, until today, he hasn’t shown that form in meets,” said Wheaton coach Jacob Ayers. “Collin comes on in the middle of the season, and he’ll really feel it at the end of the season.”
Ayers was also pleased with the work of J.T. Simoneau, who was fourth in the 1000 freestyle and divers George Doran and Mark Cieseleski who were second and third, respectively.
Lake Park’s Kyle Casper finished third in the 50 freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle.