Boys swimming: Champion Maine South survives grueling day at Conant

Near the end of Saturday afternoon’s 34th annual Conant Cougar Classic boys swimming and diving invite, Caren the Cougar — the host program’s large, stuffed animal — straddled a metal apparatus in a corner of the natatorium.

She was either in mid-yawn or in mid-roar.

“Her teeth are showing, so it’s mid-roar,” Cougars coach Brian Drenth said.

“Mid-roar, definitely,” Conant senior co-captain Bryce Loeger said.

But a whole bunch of formidable hawks reigned supreme in the water at the eight-team gathering that doubled as a Stand Up To Cancer Day.

Maine South Hawks, specifically.

Coach Don Kura’s crew racked up 22 championship swims and 392 points at the 39-event invite in Hoffman Estates. Drenth’s Cougars won eight races and tallied a runner-up total of 329 points, followed by Deerfield (286), Rolling Meadows (221), Mundelein (213), District 300 co-op (196), Downers Grove North (100) and Saint Viator (36).

The Cougar Classic featured a format of classes (F, C, B and A for relays; C, B and A for individual events) and awarded medals to the top three finishers in each class.

Maine South nearly had to rent a U-Haul trailer to transport its stockpile of medals to Park Ridge.

“Lots of hardware,” Maine South senior co-captain Dominic Mazurek, sporting a grin as wide as a pool lane, said minutes after serving as the lead-off leg for the victorious Class A 400-yard freestyle relay (pool-record 3:09; with Danilo Marsenic, Alex Wiacek and Max Fedorenko).

And to think, Maine South had battled Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South in two of the previous four days, topping GBN by 5 points Friday after losing to GBS by 3 points Tuesday.

“Plus,” Hawks senior co-captain Sam Sacor noted, “we’re still lifting weights three times a week.”

Following Saturday morning’s diving segment — Rolling Meadows’ Kyren Whiting plunged to gold in Class A with 494.85 points — Maine South won the first five races before Conant’s Yimmy Caicedo snapped the streak via his first-place 1:47.54 in the Class B 200 free; Caicedo later touched first in the Class A 100 butterfly (53.72).

Conant’s Loeger sped to first in the Class A 100 free (47.7) and later shared his thoughts on the meet’s format and the omnipresent Caren, who was rescued five years ago from a Salvation Army thrift store by Cougars assistant coach Denise Mitchell.

“We tuck Caren inside a locker during some meets,” said Loeger, the Dartmouth-bound pitcher who ranks second in career wins at Conant after three seasons. “We bring her out for the big meets, like today’s. Caren gets us fired up. A meet like this allows teams to showcase their depth. We wanted to see how we’d stack up against Maine South, which, once again, has an outstanding team.”

District 300’s co-op (coached by Molly Gomberg and comprised of athletes from Jacobs, Hampshire and Dundee-Crown, including Rolling Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta’s son, sophomore Max Chiappetta) totaled five wins Saturday, paced by two-time champs Luke Johnson (Class A 200 IM, 2:00.93; and Class A 100 backstroke, 55.4) and Charlie Mason (Class B 200 IM, 2:05.89; and Class B, 100 breaststroke, 1:06.63).

Max Chiappetta clocked a personal-best 5:06.64 (3rd place) in the Class A 500 free.

“It’s a gift, getting to watch my son race against my team and other teams,” a grateful Monika Chiappetta said.

Another family connection at the meet was the daughter-father pair of Saint Viator coach Heather Rehm and Maine South volunteer assistant coach Steve Dueball. Both swam at Maine West.

Cameron Wiklund surfaced as Mundelein’s lone champ, besting the Class A 500 free field in 4:57.84. Mustangs freshman Jack Hansen continued his strong rookie season with a third-place 344.5 in the Class A diving.

“The best thing about Jack is his willingness to learn, meet after meet,” Mundelein coach Rahul Sethna said. “And he’s getting better and better because of that eagerness.”

Maine South’s other championship efforts included Daniel Ormanov (Class C 200 free, 1:58.03); Ben Przekota (Class C 50 free, 23.53); Marsenic (Class B 50 free, 21.84); Dominic Mazurek (Class 1, 50 free, 21.04); Brendan Donovan (Class B, 100 fly, 56.61; and Class B, 100 back, 59.86); Reed Kuczura, Class C 100 free, 52.08; and Class C 100 back, 1:01.02); David Mazurek, Class C 500 free, 5:22.89); and Nicholas Drcha (Class B, 500 free, 5:18.37).

“Our guys are a little fatigued, but we showed our resiliency Friday, after a DQ in the 200 medley relay and some other things, and throughout this invite,” Kura said. “Our aim today, as it always is, was to go out there and just compete. We practice like we compete — hard. We’re at the point in the season where we’re laser-focused on details, like our starts and underwaters and turns.”

Conant’s Ayden Woo tied Deerfield’s Dawid Turos for first place in the Class A 200 free (1:45.92). Shortly thereafter Woo’s teammate Jayden Tu won the Class C 200 IM in 2:20.18, more than 5 seconds better than the runner-up’s time. The Cougars’ other individual champs were Kai Visitacion (Class C, 100 fly, 1:00.18); Alex Seeman (Class B 100 free, 49.32); and Dominik Kurek (Class A, 100 breast, 1:00.04).

“This meet allows teams’ (Nos.) two and three guys to shine,” Drenth said. “Too often they’re in the shadows of the top guys. It’s a special meet. It’s also a good meet to get us ready for the conference meet (Feb. 10) and state series.

“My guys have a great mental attitude, collectively. They were young last year, just missed achieving what they had hoped to achieve. Their mantra for 12 months now has been, ‘The job’s not done; let’s finish it.’ We’ve been asking them, ‘What do you want your legacy at Conant to be? Is it what you do as a swimmer or as a student or as a leader?’”

Other champs Saturday: District 300’s Gabe Niemi (Class C 100 breast, 1:07.29); Deerfield’s Samuel Ripstein (Class C diving, 224.25); Deerfield’s Luca Haidu (Class B diving, 330.55); Maine South’s Class F 200 medley relay (1:54; Max Dudek David Mazurek, Drcha, Max Fraley); Maine South’s Class C 200 medley relay (1:40.24; Przekota, Ormanov, Dragos Cozma, Kuczura); Maine South’s Class B 200 medley relay (1:42.05; Donovan, Jacob Drone, Sean Forrest, Wiacek); Maine South’s Class A 200 medley relay (1:35.5; Fedorenko, Sacor, Dominic Mazurek, Marsenic).

Also, Maine South’s Class F 200 free relay (1:37.95; Fraley, David Mazurek, Dudek, Drcha); Maine South’s Class C 200 free relay (1:8.2; Jason Tang, Drone, Simon Krasnicki, Jack Conway); Maine South’s Class B 200 free relay (1:34.21; Przekota, Cozma, Forrest, Sacor); Maine South’s Class A 200 free relay (1:26.02; Dominic Mazurek, Marsenic, Wiacek, Fedorenko).

Also, Maine South’s Class F 400 free relay (3:33.84; Fraley, David Mazurek, Dudek, Drcha); Maine South’s Class C 400 free relay (Drone, Krasnicki, Kuczura, Ormanov); and Maine South’s Class B 400 free relay (3:23.2; Cozma, Conway, Donovan, Forrest).

Rolling Meadows’ Landon Bond silvered in the Class C 200 free (2:03.33) and Emanuel Anguelov touched second in the Class A 100 free (48.42); Mundelein’s Alec Sethna and Trey Halas took runner-up honors in the Class B 500 free (5:21) and Class A 100 back (58.11), respectively; and Saint Viator’s Ethan Bordeau placed fifth (2:32.99) in the Class B 200 IM.