Swimmers enjoy change of pace at Bronco Relays
Most everyone - swimmers, coaches and fans alike - seem to really enjoy the all-relay invites.
They're fun, they're team oriented events, and they include some swims that aren't normally on the standard meet listing.
"I like the team aspect," said Barrington senior Sam Deweerdt, as his school hosted the Bronco Relays Saturday. "I swam in the 4 x 100 IM (individual medley), and that's not usually a regular event in every week races."
"It switches things up a little bit," he added. "I'm a cross-country runner as well and there, you don't get relays too often. I really enjoy the aspect of team competition."
The invitational was divided up into two divisions, the Red and the White, with 5 teams participating in each.
Waubonsie Valley excelled in the Red, winning 8 events overall to post a winning point total of 133. Naperville Central (106) was second, followed by Lyons, St. Charles East and Naperville North.
Lake Forest (129) edged the Broncos (120) in the White division, with Lake Park third.
Some of the highlights on the day were Waubonsie Valley's win in the 400 medley (3:41.70) behind Shaun Baul, Ethan Huynh, Luke Martens and Sam Lohman; and Barrington taking first in their divison's 300 butterfly with Adam Gaffney, Judd Baron, David Basa and Maxsym Kocur.
Lake Park won the 100 free (41.19) with the foursome of Jacob Drodz, Matthew Karasek, Alexander Grodecki and Dominick Perkowski.
Naperville North's team of Jason Xu, Alvin Ng, Ethan Herscher and Jack Reif took it's Red 300 butterfly at 3:41.70, while St. Charles East triumphed in the 200 free, led by Will Murray, Ryan Medus, Ben Stevens and Chris Souk.
Saints senior Murray said that it was "one of the most fun meets of the year."
"It's very high energy, everybody is cheering, it's one of everyone's favorite meets of the season. We're a tight-knit group of boys on this team, everyone is very positive, and I can't say we're disappointed (in the times today). I've been swimming well, and everybody around me has been swimming well."
"I'm really proud (of my team) this year."
Murray has been spending some time making college visit recently, and he's interested in attending one of the schools in the CCIW Conference in the fall (such as Illinois Wesleyan, Carthage and Augustana) or Illinois State. He plans to major in Education.
St. Charles East coach Adam Musial said that he really appreciates the effort that Murray has been giving.
"Will is one of our senior captains," said Musial. "He has high goals and expectations for himself and for the team, and he's one of those kids who puts in a lot of hard work and effort. He has the mindset to do everything correctly to put himself in the best possible position to achieve his objectives."
"He's been putting up marks in the 50 and 100 that are very competitive with other kids in the state. He actually split 21.99 the other night at Marmion - he was a little surprised that he swam that fast, but I told him that's where he should be at if he wants to reach his goals."
"We actually had one of our top kids (Kyle Algrim) out today, because he was competing at (USA) Junior Nationals in Texas, and Will really stepped up for us."