Scouting Cook and Lake County boys swimming
Here’s a look at what to expect this winter for the area’s boys swimming teams.
BARRINGTON
The Broncos’ top swimmer returning is senior Notre Dame recruit Lucas Bucaro. Bucaro placed seventh at the state meet in the 200 individual medley and 10th in the 500 freestyle.
Bucaro's efforts propelled the Broncos to a second straight Mid-Suburban League title, a third-place finish at the talent-laden Stevenson sectional and a 10th-place finish in the state.
Other state qualifiers back are junior Will Pinchot and sophomore Quinn Bennett.
Second-year coach Alex Mikolajewski is seeking contributions from juniors Payton Cotner, Luke Keller and Eric Ding along with sophomores Tim Sarciek and Jackson Cuttright.
"We are shooting for a third consecutive MSL title," said the Barrington coach. “We want a fun season and we want a big group at the state meet to compete.”
BUFFALO GROVE
The Bison guided by Tom Cooney are paced by senior diver Mike Surowienic who was 11th at the state meet.
Hoping to improve on an eighth-place finish in the Mid-Suburban League, fourth in the sectional and 25th at the state meet, the Bison return senior Nolan Smith, who was 36th in the state in the 100 freestyle and 38th in the 200 freestyle.
Junior David Olaru returns as a state qualifier.
Other returners are seniors Ivan Januszewski, Tim Nix and Barrett Garrard along with juniors Emanuel Gavrilos, Nick Shomali and Nick Lipani.
Newcomers seeking pool time are juniors Tamazi Sanadiradze, Emmett Nix, Owen Shoop and Luka Stojanovic, sophomores Ben Inglis, Joe Buttitta and Matthew Vasiljevs and freshmen Adam Cichon, Maxim Pralat and Luka Gavriles.
"We are losing some key seniors to graduation but we are counting on newcomers to step into key roles," said Cooney. “We welcome a mixture of underclassmen that should make an immediate impact and add to our depth. We want to be competitive in the tough MSL, finish in the top half the MSL and ultimately win the MSL East. We want to send individuals and relays to the state meet."
CONANT
In the athletes with disabilities division, sophomore Trevor Hanson was ninth in the 100 freestyle and 10th in the 50 freestyle.
Other returning state qualifiers are seniors Alex Seeman and Ayden Woo and junior Dominik Kurek. The Cougars were second in the MSL, fourth in the sectionals and 21st at the state meet last year.
Returners are seniors Kirit Gecka, Marcel Komeza, Jayden Tu, Kailey Visitacion, Carl Wang and Ayden Woo, juniors Victor Kozlowski, Marcin Mysza, Michal Ryba and Ren Shibata, and sophomores Devin Burke and Alan Murik.
Newcomers include seniors Anthony Batjargal and Aakash Rao, sophomore Luca Tamas and freshmen John Cheon, Nick Guarino, Neil Kandalgankar and Brayden Tu.
"Last year we set school record and numerous pool records," said coach Brian Drenth. “We got 15 state medals and were second in the MSL. This year’s teams is working hard to match last year's success. We worked hard in the off-season and we want to start where we left off last year. We want to be better."
ELK GROVE
The Grenadiers under Keith Kura finished 10th in the Mid-Suburban League a year ago.
Returners are seniors Anthony Reyes and Lou Cabanayan and sophomore Sergej Stevanovic. Freshman Cadenn Chavez hopes to contribute.
"We are looking to work hard and build on positives from previous seasons," said Kura. “We want to create new positive traditions that are the base of the Elk Grove boys swimming program.”
FREMD
The Vikings, third in the MSL, fifth in the sectionals and 37th at the state meet last season, return senior Tyler Franke who was 38th in the 50 freestyle and 39th in the 100 freestyle.
Junior Marcus Witkowski was a state qualifier a year ago. Also back are seniors Will Plizga and Ryan Fisher along with sophomore Alex Ivanov, and they will be joined by freshman Sean Mckian.
"We want to improve on last season," said coach Andrew Adams. “We have double the divers from last season. Our overall numbers are up especially the ninth graders."
HOFFMAN ESTATES
Junior Conor Nestler was fifth in the 100 breaststroke, seventh in the 50 freestyle and eighth in the 100 freestyle in the athletes with disabilities division of last season’s state meet.
Other returnees include seniors Shane Cantwell, Alex Morel, Troy Johnson and Anthony Erdenbach, along with sophomores Brandon Rush, Martin Stolarz and Skyler Navarro.
Newcomers looking to contribute are sophomores Fatih Ozmen, Amin Sagynbekov and Jayden Dumar.
"We are looking forward to some good dual meets with better numbers than last year," said coach Adam Longo.
LAKE ZURICH
The Bears, under Jill Kragseth, will swim in just the North Suburban and sectional meets. Returners are seniors Chase Slagter and Johnathan Tauchen and juniors Krispin Szeczech, Soorya Harayu and Owen Becker along with sophomore Joey Arval.
LIBERTYVILLE
With Stevenson, who has won 10 straight North Suburban Conference titles, Libertyville is seeking a second straight NSC runner-up spot.
Junior Hayden Cook placed 16th in the diving competition.
Others returning are seniors Sebastian Baldowski, Shreyas Moorthy, Nick Ozimek and Louith Vuppala, juniors Ethan Audette, Luke Bucciero, John Camacho and Max Shores, and sophomores Zane Rihman and Max Seres.
Newcomers are juniors Max Sieberlich, Cameron Greenhouse and Mehmet Korkut, sophomores Pete Conlon Simon and Solomon Ellingson and Marcello Prinz, and freshmen Josh Kallmeyen Will Neff, Oliver Rush and Gabe Papanos.
"The younger swimmers have made big improvements," said coach Greg Herman. “We are battling for second in the conference. We want to get swimmers and divers down state."
MAINE SOUTH
The Hawks enjoyed a successful 2023-2024 campaign with a third-place effort in the CSL South, second-place finish in the sectionals, and they completed the season with an eighth-place finish at the state meet with 91 points.
"We want to build on the tradition we have established over the course of the past few seasons," said coach Don Kura. “We will try to figure out who we are as a team and focus on improving and make sure of our process at practice. The CSL is always tough. We hope to improve as the season goes on and peek in February.”
Wisconsin-Milwaukee recruit senior Dragos Cozma placed 35th in the state in the 500 freestyle and 40th in the 200 freestyle. Senior relay specialist Alex Wiacek is a returning state qualifier.
Others returning are seniors Sean Forrest, Ben Prezekota, Brendon Donavan, Jacob Drone, Reed Kuczura and Daniel Ormanov along with sophomores Nick Drcha and David Mazurek.
Newcomers include junior Caleb Larkin, sophomores Max Fraley, Max Dudek and Andrew Steinfels, and freshman Michael Saviski.
"It is an experienced group of seniors but we become very young after that group," said Kura. “The story of our success in the pool and deck is our seniors leading the younger athletes. As the season goes on, we need increasing contributions by our underclassmen. If those things happen we will be competitive come February.”
MUNDELEIN
The Mustangs finished fourth in the North Suburban Conference and ninth in the sectionals.
First-year coach Jake Gonzalez inherits sophomore diver Jack Hansen, who was 29th in the state as a freshman. Others back are seniors Jack Barzycki, Trey Halas, Xavier Hilgart and Tovi Kharpak along with junior Cameron Wiklund and sophomore Arthur Ostovskiy.
Newcomers include freshmen Daniel Tatevosian, Marek Sikora and Griffin Rogers.
"We are very excited about the returning swimmers," said Gonzalez. “We set high standards and compete at the highest level and meet the same standards as coach Sethna. We want to meet our standards in and out of the water."
PALATINE
Seniors Nick Maslowski and Brodie Piecuch and juniors Colton Hilgers, Sam Piazza and Kyle Carlson are back for the Pirates who finished 11th in the Mid-Suburban League and seventh in the sectionals.
Newcomers for coach Katie Mroz are junior Nathan Bye and sophomore Jaxon Vandergiessen.
"We have a strong dual meet team with a lot of depth across the board," said Mroz. “We want to start to fill out the top of our team and finding our speed. There are challenges every day to improve our team."
ROLLING MEADOWS
Monika Chiapetta's squad will be led by Emanuel Anguelov, who was a state qualifier in the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
"We want to get our best times, break a few records and qualify individuals for state," said Chiapetta, in her 28th season.
SCHAUMBURG
The Saxons return relay state qualifiers seniors Dennis Bobiv, Octavia Zemaitaitis and Jimmy Bredfield from last season's team which finished fifth in the Mid-Suburban League, fifth in sectionals and 16th in the state.
"This has the potential to be a very exciting and successful season for us," said coach Sam Gabriel. “We want to move up the conference standings and continue a presence at the state meet. We want to qualify multiple state qualifiers in individual events and relays and score points at the state meet.”
Sophomore Will Dohrn returns after contributing as a freshman at the varsity level.
Newcomers include senior Andrew Spencer and junior Ivan Romanchuk.
"Some of our younger swimmers are prepped to take another major step forward and be big contributors to the frosh-soph and varsity levels," said Gabriel. “Even though we graduated one of Schaumburg's best swimmers ever in Szymon Mieczkowski we have new faces to fill that hole.”
SAINT VIATOR
The Lions under first-year coach Dan Emary hope to improve on the 10th-place finish in the Metro Catholic Aquatic Conference and a 12th-place sectional effort.
Back for the Lions are juniors Tim Dillion and Marcus Montesclaros, and sophomores Lukasz Petracci and Ethan Boudreau, and they will be joined by freshman Ethan Collins.
"We are very young and looking to build experience throughout the season and compete at the highest level," said Emary. “We want to be better in the conference. Even though we have a smaller team we are looking to step up and place higher at the conference meet. We want to progress and have fun while doing it."
STEVENSON
Veteran coach Doug Lillydahl begins his final season as the Stevenson coach.
The Patriots, fifth in the state in 2024 (143 points), have won 9 straight sectional crowns and 10 consecutive NSC titles.
Lillydahl welcomes back senior Sirui Wang who was fifth in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. Other state qualifiers returning are seniors Maxim Kolbunuv and Felix Wang along with juniors Josh Wang, Kyler Chou and Justin Zhao, and sophomore Allan Zhu.
Seniors Jared Carollo, Finn Schneider, Matt Oakes, Derrick Lee and Tim Rhee, and juniors Sam Rahimzadeh, Brendan Jones and Phillip Qui also return.
"We lost some powerhouse swimmers," said Lillydahl. "Nevertheless, we have boys ready to step up. They want to push the team back to the Top 10. We want to win the sectional crown and an 11th straight conference title and finish in the Top 10 in state. Libertyville, Mundelein and Lake Forest will be competitive in the chase for an 11th straight conference title.“
WARREN
State qualifiers back for coach Kim Lobitz are senior Evan DiVito and sophomores Nate and Reed Thiemeyer.
Newcomers include freshmen Max Ludwig and Luke Bernstein.
"We have a young and small team," said Lobitz. “We build from the JV and put together the best dual meet lineup possible. We have several individuals who have the potential to make it to the state meet. We want to qualify relays and multiple individuals to the state meet.”
VERNON HILLS
The Cougars enjoyed an outstanding 2023-2024 campaign. Vernon Hills won its first CSL North championship, was second in the sectionals and 19th at the state meet.
"We are determined to build on success from last year and the seniors are focused to leave a legacy with ambitious goals," said coach Jim Pardun. "We are ready to embrace the target and showcase our strength. Clinching the conference championship and securing second place in the IHSA sectional gave us a glimpse of greatness and they are hungry for more.“
Senior Dan Berke, a Colorado School of Mines recruit, was 12th in the state in the 50 freestyle and 28th in the 100 butterfly.
Sophomore Yury Plaksin placed 12th in the 100 freestyle and 17th in the 200 freestyle. Senior Will Rendell was 26th in the 100 breaststroke and 37th in the 50 freestyle. Junior Edgar Chan was a state qualifier.
Returners also include seniors Murray Heneghan, Andrew Schulman and Sai Soletti, juniors Jayden Chua, Maruthi Kavari, Leo Schifrin and Tyler Starka along with sophomores Will Blackmer, Marco Jingco and Dan Spivak. Newcomers seeking pool time are seniors OM Kotwal and Sanjit Vuppunthula, and freshman Jack Janzen.
"In the conference we are anticipating the dual meet against Niles West," said Pardun. “Highland Park and Niles North promise to bring fierce competition Every team in the conference brings unique strengths to the pool."