Boys swimming: Barrington edges Conant for MSL title

As the Barrington girls swimming coach 2016, Alex Mikolajewski has quite a resume, already racking up four Mid-Suburban League titles and a second place in the 2019 state finals.

He added an additional job this school year as the boys head coach.

Mikolajewski made quite a splash in his first MSL boys meet on Saturday at the Prospect High School Natatorium.

Mikolajewski's Broncos (230) held off a strong effort from runner-up Conant (220) to win the showcase event.

Fremd took third place followed by MSL East champion Prospect (143.5), Schaumburg (134) and host Hersey (113.5).

“This wasn't necessarily really the focus of the day,” said Mikolajewski, a physical education teacher at Barrington. “We're still looking forward to the next two weeks (sectional and state finals) and seeing what we can do. We've got some guys really banged up and pretty tired. But I think we're in a really good spot. With what we were able to do training-wise, we are really happy and we're just going to try to keep the positive vibes rolling into the next couple of weeks.”

Broncos senior David Basa, who has medaled three of the last four years, was proud to be part of four Barrington teams that all won titles or shared it (with Fremd in 2023).

“We've won every year I was on the team so it's exciting to finish it off on a high note,” said Basa, who plans on swimming in college and studying psychology.

Over the last 24 years, Barrington and Fremd have won all the MSL meets except for Conant's title in 2012.

“It's been really exciting to keep this going and feel like we are part of the Barrington legacy,” added Basa, who was part of Barrington's second-place 200 yard medley team with Lucas Bucaro, Luke Keller and Adam Gaffney.

The Broncos' Rylan Anselm won the 200 free with a 1:42.01 clocking and the 500 free with a 4:45.00.

Barrington's Quinn Bennet was sixth in the 200 free. Bucaro was third in the 200 IM and second in the 500 free. Keller took sixth in the 200 IM. Gaffney was second in the 100 fly.

Anselm, Bennet, Pinchot and Gaffney came home first in the 200 free relay (1:28.17) just edging Schaumburg's Szymon Mieczkowski, Dennis Bobiv, James Bredfield and Octavio Zemaitaitis (1:28.25). Anselm, Bennet, Piunchot and Gaffney also were second in the 400 free relay.

Four Broncos produced personal best: freshman Jackson Curttright in the 100 backstroke (seventh with a 55.80), sophomore Connor Payton in the 100 back (sixth with a 55.60), junior Evan Kissack in the 100 breast 14th with a 1:05.30) and sophomore Will Pinchot in the 100 free (eighth with a 49.56).

“We're very deep,” Mikolajewski added. “A lot of guys are solid swimmers who just showed up to do one event today and they did it amazingly well. We didn't expect any records. We said 'let's just get through it and get on the bus.' ”

Conant got back on its bus after recording five school records, the most in an MSL meet in coach Brian Drenth's 24 seasons.

“It's awesome,” Drenth said. “Everyone stepped up top to bottom. Barrington had a bunch of phenomenal athletes. Our kids knew if we had a shot to beat them everyone had to step up and that's exactly what they did. It was a phenomenal effort. I think we were seeded 40 points behind them and we lost by 10.”

Senior Bryce Loeger was part of four of the school records. He joined Dominik Kurek, Yimmy Caicedo and Alex Seeman to win the 200 medley relay (1:34.15, also a pool and conference record). Loeger also won the 50 free (20.82 for a pool and conference standard) and the 100 free (45.89). Finally, Loeger joined Caicedo, Ayden Woo and Seeman to win the 400 free relay in pool and conference record time (3:09.07).

“Obviously, this is not the outcome we wanted,” said Loeger, who is committed to pitch for the Dartmouth baseball team. “We just missed (title). But I wouldn't want to spend my senior year with any other group of guys. This was kind of the year I was looking forward to since I was a freshman. Being the only senior on this team, I've loved competing with these guys.”

Conant's other school record was by Kurek. The sophomore ace (59:39) broke the oldest-standing record in program history (1993) when he placed second to Buffalo Grove's Edgar Rutkauskas (58.35) in the 100 breast.

Rutkauskas also won the 200 IM with a 1:53.28 over Fremd's Jaden Heinlen (156.60).

Schaumburg's Mieczkowski also was a big two-time individual winner. He won the 100-yard free (45.05) and the 100 back (47.63), both setting pool, and MSL records.

“Winning those races just showed that the hard work is paying off,” said the Kentucky pledge who won the 100 butterfly last year and was second in the 100 back to Jaden Heinlein. “And that I'm able to get faster.”

This year, Prospect's Auggie Lapys took first in the butterfly (52.14) while Gaffney (52:39) was second.

Prior to the diving competition, Jeff Thieman was honored for his 50-plus seasons as the Rolling Meadows diving coach.

Appropriately enough, the Mustangs' Kyren Whiting then won the event with a score of 508.95. Pacing second was Hersey senior Jacob Koclanis (456.60), who was 16th at state diving last season.

Whiting was third in the MSL last year and Koclanis was fourth.

“I've been really good friends with Kyren for the past four years and we've been club teammates,” said Koclanis, who is headed to Division I Binghamton University in New York to study biology. “He's really good so I wasn't really worried about beating him because I know how well he competes. I was worried about the next few guys and I ended up beating them out for seconds so I was really happy.

“The key today was that I was pretty focused and just did a lot of visualization. It worked out.”