Boys swimming: Hinsdale Central repeats as state champs
Again.
Behold the operative word for a certain team and more than a few individuals at Saturday’s boys swimming and diving state meet at FMC Natatorium in Westmont.
Hinsdale Central won its second straight state championship and 20th overall behind five event titles, paced by Red Devils junior Joshua Bey, who motored his way to a pair of state-meet records (200-yard IM, 1:44.89; 100 breaststroke, 52.98) and helped the squad’s 200 medley relay supplant another state mark with a time of 1:29.13 (with Matthew Vatev, Jeffrey Hou and Brody Marcet).
“Months ago, at a meet in Israel (at Junior Worlds), I went out hard and was in second place in the 200 breaststroke. Then my body broke down as I fell to sixth. My body didn’t break down today,” Bey said.
“I’d faced my fears.”
And flattened them.
West Chicago co-op senior and reigning 100 back state champion Brady Johnson, meanwhile, crushed it in his final prep meet, topping the 100-free and 100-back fields in 43.29 and 46.82, respectively.
“Brady Johnson, again,” the meet’s PA announcer boomed as the future Arizona State Sun Devil received his gold prize in the 100 back.
Johnson was THE talk of Friday’s prelim session, having set state-meet records in the 100 free (43.15) and 100 back (46.65).
“Oh, wow, that was tougher than the 100 free,” Johnson said after beating FMC Aquatic club teammate Szymon Mieczkowski of Schaumburg (runner-up 47.04) in the 100 back on Saturday. “I’m glad he was next to me, pushing me. It was a battle. We go back and forth. He’s my equal. Now it’s back to training and more grinding. Nothing has changed.”
Waubonsie Valley (154 points) finished in third place (behind HC’s 337.5 and New Trier’s 210.5) for the second time in six years under coach Christopher Hagenbaumer. His crew was 8 points behind third-place St. Ignatius before the final event, the 400 free relay.
St. Ignatius’ quartet finished 11th (3:05.58); Hagenbaumer’s foursome of Tyler Bardak, Luke Martens, Shaun Bahl and Sam Lohman finished seventh (3:04.58).
“What a grand finale to four years for our seniors,” the coach said. “They came together and earned this. We had to … finish. And we did.
“It’s the heart; it’s their collective heart,” he added, tapping his chest as he spoke. “My seniors — they’re like my sons — are going away, going off to college. I’m so proud of them.”
Ignatius wound up in fourth place, 4 points behind WV.
Neuqua Valley senior Alex Parkinson successfully defended his 500-yard free state title, touching in a swift 4:22.33 (nearly 3 seconds faster than his prelim effort) ahead of runner-up Chase Maier (4:24.18) of Oswego.
“As I got closer to the end of the race, I thought, ‘Still in front; I can win this,’” Parkinson said. “My plan near the end of the race was to make everybody else feel uncomfortable.”
Stevenson was fifth (143), followed by Marmion (117), West Chicago co-op (94), Maine South (91), Naperville North (67) and Barrington (65).
The meet, in a nutshell: Hinsdale Central — too good.
“It’s a very nice place to work,” said Red Devils coach Bob Barber, whose 2022-23 edition was declared national champion by SwimCloud. “Last year we had (pedestal) swimmers. This year we relied on interchangeable swimmers. Many times, too many to count, I’d look around and ask, ‘Are you available?’ How about you?’
“They usually were,” he added, “and they’d come through for us. The goal all year was ‘XX’ (20, as in reaching that number of state titles in program history)."
Other notable results Saturday: Hinsdale Central’s championship 400 free relay team (Nojus Bertulis, Nate Harris, Henry Guo, Hou; 2:59.87); Hou (second, 200 IM, 1:45.75; second, 100 fly, 47.45); Oswego’s Maier (second, 200 free, 1:37.53) WV’s 200 medley relay (third, 1:30.72; Bardak, Nathan Huynh, Keian Lam, Alex Schwartz); Lam (third, 100 breast, 53.89); Marmion’s 400 free relay (third, 3:03.41; Evan Conti, Brayden Capen, Braden Nagel, Dan Ginaitis).
Also, Naperville Central’s Max Goettsch (fourth, 100 free, 44.49); Naperville North’s 200 free relay (fourth, 123.3; Jonathan Wang, Rubenas Stackevicius, Ethan Herscher, Alvin Ng); Conti (sixth, 200 free, 1:38.7); Marmion’s Capen (sixth, 200 IM, 1:49.93); and St. Charles East’s Kyle Algrim (sixth, 500 free, 4:30.62).