Boys swimming: Maine South’s Mazurek makes history; Schaumburg’s Mieczkowski wins 200
The first half of the 50-yard freestyle event at Saturday’s boys state swimming and diving meet didn’t go swimmingly for Maine South senior Dominic Mazurek.
“I was close to last place,” the Hawk — a first-time qualifier in the sprint — recalled at FMC Natatorium in Westmont. “It kind of stressed me.”
But a good turn and a smooth breakout de-stressed Mazurek and allowed him to catch up to, and surpass, the rest of the wet field. He touched the final wall in 20.21, edging runner-up Willem Huggins of Carbondale by a scant 0.04.
“I like to chase, make it exciting,” the Purdue commit added.
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Mazurek made history, too. The last Hawk to bow for a first-place medal at a boys state swimming and diving meet was backstroker Frank McCullough, in — wait for it — 1967.
A zippy state swim Saturday from Schaumburg senior Szymon Mieczkowski also forced folks to dig into the past. The Kentucky-bound Saxon topped the 200-free field with a time of 1:37.16, becoming the first swimmer in program history to collect state gold since Brock Harr won a pair of titles (200 IM, 100 breaststroke) in 1988.
“Go hard, get a lead early,” the 6-4, 195-pound Mieczkowski said of the first part of his race plan. “I’m tired right now, and happy. I raced against some of my good friends today. Friday (in prelims), this meet was about getting a feel for the atmosphere and great crowd.
“Today, I woke up ready.”
Mazurek and Mieczkowski each added a silver to their medal haul, the former going 43.95 in the 100 free and the latter going 47.04 in the 100 back.
Hinsdale Central cruised to its second straight state championship and 20th overall with an impressive 337.5-point showing. The Red Devils captured five titles at the 12-event meet.
New Trier (210.5) took runner-up honors, followed by Waubonsie Valley (154), St. Ignatius (150), Stevenson (143), Marmion (117), West Chicago co-op (94), Maine South (91), Naperville North (67) and Barrington (65).
Stevenson senior Colin Zhang capped his stellar prep career with a second-place 53.3 in the 100 breast and a fourth-place 1:48.08 in the 200 IM; Barrington senior Rylan Anselm sped to third in the 500 free (4:27.9) and fourth (1:37.85) in the 200 free.
Rolling Meadows senior diver Kyren Whiting supplanted himself in Mustangs program history by bettering — by one spot — his fourth-place effort at last winter’s state meet. His third-place total of 502.3 points Saturday featured a dandy 58.5-point reverse-twister in his penultimate dive.
“Fast arms,” he said of the key to nailing the twister (degree of difficulty: 2.6).
Other fast times: 1:22.37 (Maine South’s third-place 200 free relay — Mazurek, Danilo Marsenic, Alex Wiacek, Max Fedorenko); 55.3 (Stevenson’s Sirui Wang, fifth, 100 breast); 20.54 (Conant’s Bryan Loeger, sixth, 50 free); 48.9 (Stevenson’s Diego Rosario-Freytes, sixth, 100 butterfly); 1:31.65 (Stevenson’s fourth-place 200 medley relay — Justin Zhao, Zhang, Rosario-Freytes, Liam Plautz); and 3:03.59 (Stevenson’s 400 free relay — Rosario-Freytes, Maxim Kolbunov, Zhang, Plautz).
Barrington senior Lucas Bucaro finished seventh in the 200 IM (1:50.75), and teammate Krish Patel medaled in diving (sixth, 465.85). Buffalo Grove’s Edgar Rutkauskas placed eighth in the 800 breaststroke (55.93).
Vernon Hills’ 400 free relay of Yury Plaksin, Dan Berke, Eli Spivak and Edward Zhao took sixth (3:04.41).
“It’s a whole different animal,” VH coach Jim Pardun said of Saturday at state vs. Friday at state. “My nerves went through the roof in prelims Friday. Today it’s all about going out there, having fun and racing.
“The pep talks are done,” he added.
Fremd senior Sean Grady silvered four times in Athletes With Disability races, clocking a 2:04.97 in the 200 free, a 26.63 in the 50 free, a 57.59 in the 100 free and a 1:26.33 in the 100 breast.