Barrington steals the MSL spotlight
Before Friday’s diving session at Barrington started championship weekend in Mid-Suburban League swimming and diving, a brief power flicker had knocked out the lighting in Barrington’s pool.
While Broncos swimming coach John Valentine tried to restore it, his team practiced in relative darkness in order to clear the pool before the diving session was to begin.
It got dire enough that Valentine was investigating whether or not the meet could be moved to Elk Grove instead. But in short order a faulty switch was located, the problem was solved and both sessions of the meet went off without a hitch.
With the lights back on, Barrington grabbed the spotlight.
Following diver Nolan Presmyk’s victory Friday, the Barrington swimmers stormed to the Mid-Suburban League championship with 291 points Saturday afternoon. It’s the team’s sixth straight conference championship, and the second time in a row the Broncos did it after missing out on the West Division championship, which was won by Fremd.
“This was really important to us,” said Barrington junior Leo Hayden, who won the 100-yard butterfly. “After the Fremd meet (which the Vikings won), we were really disappointed and we knew this would be our chance to show that we know what we’re doing over here.”
“Right after the Fremd meet, as a team we talked about how we need to emphasize this meet,” said Barrington senior Alex Anderson, who placed second in the 100 backstroke. “That meet was such a letdown, but I’d definitely say it refocused us.”
There were solid swim across the board for Barrington. Other winners included Jack Strauss in the 200 IM and 100 free, Matt Lee in the 50 free, Connor Kobida in the 100 breaststroke, the 200 medley relay of Strauss, Kobida, Kyle Ujiye and Dan Comyn, and the 200 free relay of Comyn, Lee, Ujiye and Strauss.
Equally important for the Broncos was significant points in their so-called weak events — for example freshman Sebastian Piekarski’s 12-second time drop to a point-scoring finish in the 500 free.
“Sebastian has a refreshing attitude,” said Valentine. “There aren’t many freshman like him who can walk up and just accept the challenge, and he’s certainly done that.”
And Barrington accomplished all this without standout Greg Alexander, who is recovering from a home injury that required some 15 stitches in a hand. Valentine says Alexander’s participation in the 100 breaststroke in next weekend’s sectional meet is likely, but that he’s unlikely to compete in the 200 IM.
“Our kids really knew there was a conference title at state, and they swam like it,” Valentine said. “Meets are fun — today was a reflection of all the hard work they put in during the weeks in between them this season.
Conant repeated its second-place finish of a season ago with consistently strong efforts. The Cougars finished on a high note, winning the 400 free relay in 3:18.39 with Jonathan Burke, Alan Wojciechowski, Alex Shozda and Palmer Lynch.
It turns out they needed that finish because, in an extremely rare occurrence, Burke, a sophomore, was disqualified from what would have been a winning effort in the 500 freestyle for a rolling start. His time of 4:47 would have been a personal best by seven seconds.
But Conant coach Brian Drenth couldn’t have been prouder of Burke and his teammates.
“He handled it so well,” Drenth said. “He might be a sophomore, but he has the maturity level of a 30-year-old. He came back and had a great leadoff leg on freestyle relay.”
Burke’s disqualification made Fremd senior Jeff Freund the winner in the 500 (4:51.89), completing a four-year title run for him in the event. Freund, in an utterly classy move, presented the winning medal to Burke anyway, telling him he’d earned it.
Buffalo Grove junior Ian Rodriguez outclassed the field in the 100 backstroke, winning by a four-second margin in 53.40.
East Division champ Hersey’s fourth-place finish at 128 points marked a significant improvement from last season, and likewise for fifth-place Hoffman Estates (122 points), which got a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke from Sang W. Han.
Buffalo Grove (113) took sixth, followed by Wheeling (71) and Elk Grove (68). The Grens got a huge boost from the participation of sprinting standout Carl Sugihara, who’d missed previous conference meets due to conflicts with baseball.
“These guys have worked hard,” said Elk Grove coach Keith Kura. “The progress they’ve made since the season started on Nov. 22 has been phenomenal.”