Naperville Central wins DVC
If you’re looking for the 2011 DuPage Valley Conference swimming and diving champion, look no further than the defending-state champion Naperville Central.
But if you want to know about DVC records being broken, just ask about Wheaton co-op.
Wheaton’s Collin Hogan set a meet record while winning the 500 freestyle, and diver George Doran set a conference meet record in points in the diving competition on Friday.
Hogan also won the 200 freestyle relay.
“Collin and George have both been great competitors for us through the years,” said Wheaton coach Jacob Ayers. “It’s great to see them end their conference careers with record-breaking victories.”
Doran and Hogan, both of whom finished top six at state last year, were outstanding in leading Wheaton to a second-place finish behind the champion Redhawks.
Naperville Central won seven events and scored 267 points to win the DVC title, with Wheaton’s 227 narrowly beating out Naperville North and its 224 points for second place, followed by West Chicago with 105.5 and West Aurora with 83.5.
Wheaton hosted this year’s meet at Wheaton College.
Both Hogan and runner-up Kevin Butz broke the meet record in the 500 that was set by Hogan last year when they finished 4:42.56 to 4:42.61.
“I thought I had him for most of the race,” Hogan said. “And he was coming up in the last 25. So it was just, ‘don’t breathe, put your head down and reach.’ Kevin’s really a fighter.”
“Those guys swam identical races at state last year,” Ayers said. “Kevin touched him out by a few tenths. It will be interesting to see them race each other this year.”
Hogan also bested Butz in the 100 freestyle 1:45.89 to 1:46.33.
Doran scored a meet-record 461.45 points to win the conference diving championship. Teammate Mark Ciesielski’s was second with 372.05.
Those scores indicate that both divers could make it to state this year.
Doran, who finished fifth at state last year, has his eye on the gold this time around.
“I feel a lot more confident this year,” said Doran, who will attend Harvard in the fall. “My consistency has improved, and any time you have experience at a state meet it helps. I still have room to improve the next three weeks.”
“This year George hasn’t added any new dives,” said Wheaton diving coach Holly Higgins. “He’s doing the same list as last year, but he’s getting his established dives a lot stronger. He’s working on his mechanics and his fundamentals. George is athletic and powerful, and we’re working on getting higher and on his finishing. Some of the other top divers have beautiful entries, but they don’t have his power, and he has a more difficult list.”
Naperville Central won both the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle relays, while Naperville North beat the Redhawks to the finish line in the 400 freestyle relay.
The Huskies’ Nick Bessler won the 200 IM, but everything else went to the Redhawks.
Pat May won both the 50 and the 100 freestyle. Nate Weeks finished first in the 100 butterfly and Steven van Deventer took the conference championship in the 100 backstroke.
And Jeff Depew and Sean Lehane, who have been battling all year in 100 backstroke finished first and second again, with this round going to Depew.