Warren’s Danny Conway eyes sweet prep finale

Four years ago, maybe five, Danny Conway stood behind a start block before a 400-yard IM age-group race.

Had a twig been anywhere near the Blue Devil Swim Club member then, the twig would have looked obese.

“I was a skinny kid back then,” recalled Conway, now a 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior star at Warren.

A couple of thoughts raced through Conway’s mind before that race:

The breaststroke part of the 400 IM.

And a big bowl of cookie dough.

“I’d been taught that the best way to do the breaststroke was to imagine your hands scraping the sides of a huge bowl of cookie dough and then moving your hands toward your mouth,” he said.

“So there I was, in my board swimming trunks, thinking about eating cookie dough.”

Anja Grevers taught him to think that.

“She knows her stuff,” Conway, ever grateful, said.

She’s also Matt Grevers’ mother. Matt Grevers visited China four years ago, checked out that big wall and returned with an Olympic relay gold medal.

Grevers hopes to qualify for the Summer Olympics in London at the U.S. Trials in Omaha, Neb., in June.

Purdue-bound Conway will be there, too.

As a 400-meter IMer.

“I can’t wait,” he said, some six months after clocking a Trials-qualifying 4:30.1 at Junior Nationals in Palo Alto, Calif.

But he’s also looking forward to this weekend’s IHSA state meet at Evanston, where Warren (a program-best 14th place at state last year) will have a super shot at finishing in the top five. Conway ranks first among state qualifiers in the 200 IM (1:52.19) and 500 freestyle (4:33.39).

He also will swim legs for the Blue Devils’ 200 medley (1:35.69, ranked fifth) and 400 free (3:10.96, sixth) relays. Conway’s twin, St. Louis University-bound Sean Conway, and younger brother, junior Matthew Conway, joined Danny on both units at last weekend’s Lake Forest sectional.

The Three Conways aren’t as famous as The Three Tenors. But it’s early; the Conways, after all, are teens. Matthew Conway, back in 2010, made Pavarotti-esque noise at a zone meet in Minnesota, qualifying for this summer’s Olympic Trials in the 200 butterfly.

His age then: 15.

Don’t even bother looking for a more competitive trio of sibs than Kevin and Barb’s three trunks-wearing sons.

“Danny and I shared a crib,” said Sean, built like a linebacker. “I was too young to remember this, but I was told Danny and I always tried to steal each other’s binky in our crib.”

Sean usually drives the family’s 2002 Ford Explorer (151,000-plus miles, mostly to and from swim practices and meets; “Thank you, Mom,” Danny said).

That means Danny and Matt play “The Shotgun Game.”

But it’s not who yells “Shotgun!” first who gets to sit in the front seat next to Sean.

“It’s who gets to the car door first,” Danny said. “You should see us sprint toward that door.”

You should see what goes on at the Conway dinner table.

“I remember one of us saying, ‘I ate faster than you did,’ ” Danny recalled.

Another would then chirp, “Yeah, but I ate more than you did.”

Soccer pitches, not swimming pools, got torched first by the Conways’ zeal to succeed as athletes.

“The three of us on the same soccer team – that’s when it all started, when we showed how really competitive we are,” said Matthew, a goalkeeper like his father (Kevin Conway made D-1 saves at Dayton).

“Even though I was a year younger than my brothers, I loved playing in those games.”

Sean played sweeper, and Danny dribbled and dished as a midfielder.

Even TV-watching, at times, is an intense diversion at the Conway home. It typically involves a chewed-up dog/tennis ball.

“We’ll be sitting around with the TV on, casually throwing that ball around,” Sean said. “But you can’t do just that; you have to eventually test the other guys’ reflexes, right? So we like to throw it around the room, really fast.”

Danny Conway swims in pools, really fast. He holds six Warren pool records, two as a relay dart. His individual marks: 500 free (4:33.39), 200 IM (1:52.19), 200 free (1:42.3) and 100 free (46.94).

Those should stick around for a while.

Conway’s hope?

“That they all fall,” said Conway, sixth in the 500 free (4:35.33) at state last winter. “That would make me happy; it really would. When I was a freshman, I was motivated by seeing Kirk Gagliardo’s name all over our record board.”

Gagliardo (Class of ’08), as a senior, finished eighth at state in the 50 free (21.56).

Kyle Maxwell (Class of ’97), another former Blue Devils standout, held the school record in the 500 free until Danny Conway supplanted it as a freshman.

Conway got an email after setting the record.

From Maxwell.

“Congratulations,” the email began. “I knew you’d set it.”

Recalled the email’s recipient, years later: “How nice was that? I have no idea how he got my email address.”

Warren coach Chris Bertana first coached Danny Conway as a BDSC member, post-cookie-dough days. Conway, when he was a grade-schooler, swam the mile freestyle under Bertana.

“Danny,” Bertana said, “worked incredibly hard as a miler. But the sprint aspects in high school swimming kind of threw off his training in the event, and we changed his focus after he entered Warren.

“People think the 500 free is a distance race,” he added. “For Danny, it’s not; it’s more like a sprint.”

At the Lake County Invite at Stevenson on Dec. 17, Conway, a huge Blackhawks fan, made like a slap shot for 20 laps and won the 500 free by a fat seven seconds. Elite swimmers often like to be pushed, like to see a competitor’s body to their right and to their left during races.

But here’s what Conway typically sees to his right and to his left halfway through his events: nobody.

Too fast, too efficient.

Too far ahead.

“Danny,” said Vernon Hills assistant Jim Pardun, “turns heads when he swims. He has an unbelievable ability to generate power and then maintain it. People, whenever he races, point their fingers at him and say, ‘Look at him! Look at him go!’

“The guy,” he added, “always puts on a show.”

Mundelein coach Rahul Sethna likes to make his Mustangs watch Conway clip through chlorination at meets.

“First of all, when I see Danny swim, I see a high-motor kid, a guy with guts and desire,” said Sethna said. “That’s why I love watching him race. I point him out to my guys, in the middle of Danny’s races, and tell them, ‘Look … Look how bad he wants to be good.’ ”

The good, team-before-me guy in Danny Conway made another appearance after last weekend’s Lake Forest sectional. The guy who’d just set pool records in the 200 IM and 500 free wanted to talk, forever, about teammates Garrett Zenner, Tanner Nash and Luke Hassemer.

None had qualified for state.

But all three had dropped significant time.

And turned Danny Conway’s head.

“They were tapered, so ready to go,” a genuinely proud Conway said. “This was their meet, their big meet of the year. What they did today … They deserve attention and praise. They impressed all of us.”

Danny Conway, no doubt, will impress folks at state this weekend. He’ll climb a podium more than a few times, before races (for starts) and after races (for awards).

But he’ll also look forward to descending, to returning to Evanston’s pool deck.

“Danny,” Bertana said, “cares a great deal about the people around him.”