St. Charles East toughs out a victory
On the morning when they prepared to compete in their longest races of the season, St. Charles East’s swimmers did thing they know best how to do — they trained very hard. First they lifted weights and then then they had an hour of training.
Then St. Charles East put on its competitive attitude and won its 8th Annual College Events Invite at the Norris Center.
“Maybe we’re trying to see how tough our kids are,” said St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel. “They showed today that when things aren’t going your way, you can still finish and do the best job you can, not matter how bad you feel. Sometimes winning ugly is the best way to win. We didn’t look great today but we did enough to get it done.”
Making the switch from training to competition is something all athletes perfect through the course of the season, and the Saints proved to be solid in that regard in scoring 362 points, 35 better than second-placed Metea Valley in the five-team competition.
“I know that as a freshman and sophomore, we won this meet,” the Saints’ T.J. Bindseil said. “I didn’t want to be the reason we didn’t win it in my junior year. So I gave it my all.”
Bindseil was one of two Saints race winners on Saturday when he won the 100 backstroke. Alec Carnell won the 200 backstroke.
Saturday’s workload was no surprise for the Saints, who have been overtraining all season, purposely working themselves to a state of extreme tiredness.
“We had a tough lift session this morning and I knew I was going to be tired,” Bindseil said. “I just had to overcome that mentally.”
The Saints swam roughly 8,000 yards apiece on Saturday in addition to their weightlifting session.
“We’ve been busting our butts,” Bindseil said. “We’re taking each meet as it comes, but we’re really looking at the state meet and the sectional. We want to have those as highlights of the season. In order to do that, you have to work hard through the season, and we’re doing that.”
Carnell said exhaustion becomes a thing of the past on the starting blocks.
“It’s just a level of concentration that you have,” Carnell said. “Everyone wants to improve and to make the team happy.”
Bindseil said the knowledge of such a workload can play into an athlete’s hands when he stands on the blocks ready to race.
“You know they’re tired, but you know you’re more tired,” Bindseil said. “It’s almost a pride thing. You think ‘I worked so hard this morning. Why can’t I just keep it going?’”
The college events format featured 15 swimming events and diving. In addition to all the usual events competed for in a high school dual meet, there was a 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard races in the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as well as a 400-yard individual medley. There were only two relays, a 400-yard medley relay and an 800-yard freestyle relay.
“They’ve got to see this format,” Cabel said. “We’re just past midway in the season, so it’s good to get back to those distances. We want them to realize that there’s more than the 50s and the 100s. If you want to go to the next level, you’ve going to have to prepare yourself for those kinds of situations. We like to think that we’re a college prep program, so they need to know that.”
There are always swimmers whose better races are longer than the flat-out sprints that typify the high school swim meet format.
“This is a great meet for Nick Watts,” Cabel said. “He loves this kind of meet. “Will Shanel as well. Our distance hogs looked great today, including Devin Neises, a freshman.”
Watts was second in both the 1,000 freestyle and the 500 freestyle while Neises was sixth in the 1,000 and eighth in the 500. Shanel was second in the 200 freestyle and sixth in the 200 butterfly. Overall, despite only winning the two swimming events and diving through Kyle Decker, the Saints were dominant because they swam to second or third place with consistency.
Bindseil was second in the 200 backstroke and sixth in the 400 individual medley while he also swam a leg in the 400 medley relay, which finished second.
“It’s definitely hard but it’s also nice,” Bindseil said. “The 100 backstroke is a real sprinty kind of race, where you’re swinging your arms as fast as you can. The 200 backstroke, you have time to kind of build into it and accelerate. By the end, you’re exhausted, but at the beginning, it’s nice to get a smooth backstroke going.”
In addition to his win in the 200 backstroke, Carnell was third in the 200 butterfly and swam in both Saints relays, which each finished second.
“It was a great meet,” Carnell said. “We were cheering for each other and the morale’s great on the team. Everyone gave 110 percent and that’s what gave us the win.”
Saturday’s meet capped a solid week for St. Charles East, which included a Thursday victory over Upstate Eight Conference power Neuqua Valley.
“It was a sort-of back-to-back situation for us,” Cabel said. “And then it was the college events meet with the double distance and you get to swim an extra event, but that’s the way it is in college and we want to provide that experience.”
Metea Valley won two events at Saturday’s St. Charles East Boys College Events Invite, both by Zack McClernon, who won the 200-yard butterfly and the 400 individual medley.
“He looks really strong,” Metea Valley coach Mark Jager said. “He’s tired and he died on most of his events. But he’s in good shape and he looked good, so I’m pleased with it.”
As a team, the Mustangs scored 327 points and finished second to the meet hosts, who won by 35 points.
“Today, we had a lot of good swims,” Jager said. “Overall, I think, as a team, everyone had a good day. So we’re pretty pleased.”
Metea Valley competed on Saturday without breaststroker Mike Stack, who has strep throat.
“It would have been good to have him here, but the guys did a good job stepping up,” Jager said.
The college events format featured 15 swimming events and diving. In addition to all the usual events competed for in a high school dual meet, there was a 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard races in the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as well as a 400-yard individual medley. There were only two relays, a 400-yard medley relay and an 800-yard freestyle relay.
“We don’t really train for the 1,000 (free) or for the 200 fly,” Jager said. “We train for shorter distances. So I think they stepped up and represented themselves quite well. It’s a really good way to test to see where we are as far as being in-shape and being ready to start that back half of the season.”
The Jacobs co-op may have finished fourth out of five teams at Saturday’s St. Charles East Boys College Events Invite, but the team wasn’t lacking for top-end performances.
Jacobs won nine of the 15 swimming events, accounting for a whopping 176 of the team’s 259 points.
“I’m real, real pleased with that,” Jacobs coach Rick Andresen said. “We had a couple of state cuts that we hadn’t had before.”
Butterflyer Alex Elston has been under the state cut in the 100 butterfly, and he won that event as well as the 50 freestyle and he swam a leg in his team’s victorious 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay.
Josh DeDina swam faster than the state cut in the 100 breaststroke. DeDina also swam in both relays and won the 200 breaststroke.
“He’d been close to the state cut and today he made it,” Andresen said. “That’s a big plus for him going into the sectional, to have confidence that he can swim it.”
Alex Reinbrecht also contributed to four victories for the Jacobs co-op when he swam legs in both winning relays and won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle.
The co-op’s other race win came from Jake Pearson in the 100 freestyle.
“Our hard work is paying off,” Andresen said. “They worked their butts off over Christmas vacation.”
In addition to those performances, Ryne Quinlan’s second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke was near the state cut time.
“I’ve got five or six guys who just work their tails off,” Andresen said. “They really do a great job in practice and it’s paying off.”
The college events format featured 15 swimming events and diving. In addition to all the usual events competed for in a high school dual meet, there was a 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard races in the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as well as a 400-yard individual medley. There were only two relays, a 400-yard medley relay and an 800-yard freestyle relay.
“We were a little bit rested today,” Andresen said. “We practice Tuesdays and Thursdays and I called off practice Thursday with the snow. We don’t have a meet until next weekend now, so it’ll be another great week of practice.”