Seuschek shines in St. Charles East finale

On the day Shaun Seuschek entered St. Charles East as a freshman, he knew it was going to take hard work to achieve his swimming goals.

After four years and over 2 million yards of training laps, Seuschek's career is over as a St. Charles East swimmer, but not before the Saints senior parlayed all that hard work into a superb final weekend at the boys state meet in Evanston.

Seuschek finished sixth in the 200-yard individual medley and was ninth in the 100 butterfly.

“It got me excited to be able to come back and swim again,” Seuschek said. “Back in the day, my team was really good. To come back on top with my team is positive.”

The IM is always a challenging race, and with the overall speed to this year's meet — one of the fastest in Illinois history — there was no room for anyone to suffer a letdown.

“I'm always tired in the last 50,” Seuschek said. “You've got to pull together mentally and physically and finish it off strong. There was a little fatigue, but you can't let that get you down, especially when you're racing.”

That level of focus was a practiced art for Seuschek, who said he looked up at the school's record board every time he came on-deck for training or a meet.

“I saw my name up there and it helps me and helped push me,” Seuschek said. “I want to have a good mindset. Focusing on what I've learned in the season really helped me out in this state meet and also in the sectional. The sectional was a test run for all these races that I swam this weekend.”

Saturday's success was created after a strong effort in Friday's prelims. Saints coach Joe Camel said that if he'd been asked to predict which race Seuschek would have finished higher in, he would have picked the butterfly. Even Seuschek was pleased with how prelims set him up for finals.

“When I dove in, I felt like a million bucks,” Seuschek said of his IM prelim. “I didn't even have to try to swim fast. It was all that hard work I've been doing and everything. The fly, I was hoping for a Top 6, but ninth is really good.”

Seuschek was an undoubted leader for the Saints this season, combining the spirit of seriousness and silliness that allows an athlete to endure 14 grueling weeks of training.

“It all went so fast,” Seuschek said. “I feel like I was just a freshman. It's like you blink and then it's pretty much over. I remember when I was a freshman, the seniors were giving their speeches and they said it goes really fast. I didn't even think to think it would go fast. But the years fly by fast.”

Seuschek first came to the state meet his freshman year, when he swam the team's 200 medley relay and the 200 IM, the 100 backstroke and the 400 freestyle relay.

“I still swim the IM, but I turned into a butterflyer in sophomore year,” Seuschek said.

After four trips to the state meet, Seuschek is able to assess how special is the atmosphere at either New Trier or Evanston, the state's alternating hosts for state swim meets.

“The visual of everyone and the sound of everyone screaming — it's a totally different experience,” Seuschek said. “I don't think I'm ever going to experience anything like the high school Illinois meet. The atmosphere, the sound, the smell, the taste of the chlorine — it's all special. It's a cool thing and a great experience and not everyone gets to experience it.”

In his last weekend as a high school swimmer, Seuschek wasn't missing anything, taking with him a wealth of memories — the same sort of thoughts probably shared by most swimmers and divers fortunate enough to compete on the final day.

“All my friends and family said to take it all in because it's over after today,” Seuschek said. “It hasn't hit me yet. But I'm sure on the bus ride home, it'll hit me and I'll be a little sad that it's over.”

Seuschek may have been the only St. Charles East swimmer competing on Saturday, but he was not the only resident of the city in the water. After he finished his races. Seuschek went on-deck to cheer for St. Charles North's swimmers.

“We're rivals during the high school season but we're friends in the club season,” Seuschek said. “I'm excited to go watch. I heard North cheer for me. We may be different schools, but we're all from the same city.”

St. Charles North finished 14th in the meet after picking up the pieces from a frustrating Friday. Kyle Gannon was the busiest North Stars athlete. He was 11th in the 200 freestyle, sixth in the 500 freestyle and helped the North Stars to a 10th-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay and an 8th-place finish in the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay.

The North Stars also got a 9th-place swim from Chris Dieter in the 200 freestyle.

“It's been unfulfilling,” St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. “That's a life lesson for all of us. You don't always get what you want.”

Gannon is one of the athletes returning next year along with fellow juniors Nick Kowaleski and Spencer Gray who swam in prelims and on the 400 freestyle relay.

“It's more the team thing than the individual thing,” Rooney said. “(Gannon) would agree with me 100 percent on that. He had a great swim yesterday and I think the vibe the rest of the way kind of went that way.”

Rooney said there is a challenge for his team as it enters the offseason.

“The challenge is going to be figuring out what to change for the future as far as what we're doing,” Rooney said. “To be honest with you, I'll take the blame for how we did (Saturday.) That's life. We have to figure out some changes in the program a little bit. All of our kids did a great job through all of the tapers. We just have to maybe tweak out a few things.”

Rooney said certain things are not in-question, such as the attitude of a team he called his closest-ever.

“The commitment level wasn't a problem because they've been committed since last year,” Rooney said.

Marmion's team has challenges set before it as well. The Cadets had one finals swim, a 10th-place finish from the 400 freestyle relay. Marmion brought a number of young swimmers without state meet experience to the state meet. Now those athletes have seen the state meet, and their goals will change this offseason.

“We had two seniors this year, but we have a real interesting balance,” Marmion coach Bill Schalz said. “We're really good in the freshman class, even though none of those guys made this meet. Losing (senior) Dan Duhig is a big loss for our program. We don't really have a breaststroker for our medley next year. We either need some rock stars on the back, fly and free or we're going to have to come up with something.”

Schalz pointed to the need to develop youth from within the high school team as one key to sustained or renewed success.

“There's a huge difference between the boys meet and the girls meet,” Schalz said. “The guys meet, it's all juniors and seniors. It's very rare that a guy can break into the Top 6 as a freshman. On the girls side, you see so many more freshmen and sophomores at the state meet. So the population that you bring to the state meet is cut in half. We had 35 on our team and we're looking to find 10 from 35 who can perform at the state meet.”

Schalz said there are such talented swimmers on his roster, including sophomore Mike Burke, who swam on that 400 free relay and sophomore Jack Fergus, who swam in Friday's prelims and was an alternate on that relay.

“That sophomore class and our juniors are going to be the anchors of our returning group,” Schalz said.