Boys swimming: Fremd’s Franke flies to 50 free title at Stevenson’s unique meet

Stevenson hosted a boys swimming and diving relays invite Saturday afternoon and a Tyler vs. Kyler show broke out in the middle of it.

Tyler Franke, a Fremd senior, and Kyler Chou, a Stevenson junior, had advanced two rounds in the 50-yard freestyle before facing off for the unofficial King of the Sprint honors at the 14-team, 40-event gathering in Lincolnshire.

Franke finished runner-up to Chou in a semifinal heat but had recorded a fast enough time to qualify for the showdown with the Patriot and two others.

The Viking then hit the wall first in the championship heat, edging Chou 21.78 to 21.88.

“An elimination event like that adds spice to a relays meet,” said Stevenson coach Doug Lillydahl.

“I’m pretty happy with the way I swam today,” said Franke, whose personal record in the event is 21.53 and whose coach, Andrew Adams, noted the meet is always “a fun one,” with its unusual relays (600 free, 500-free crescendo, and 4-by-25 freshman/sophomore/junior/senior free, to name a few) and tourney-style 50 free.

Chou’s race plan in his third 50 free of the day was simple: “Give everything I had,” he said.

The meet featured concurrent Green and Gold team competitions. Stevenson deployed a team in each division, finishing runner-up (203.5 points) to New Trier (242) in the Gold and third (187) behind Sandburg (207.5) and Libertyville (238) in the Green.

“It’s a beginning, this meet,” said Libertyville coach Greg Herman, who watched seven of his relay units take first place, second only to NT’s eight championship quartets. “It’s a chance to see where we are, to discover some things, after two weeks of practice. Some of our swimmers are coming off club seasons, so they’re ahead of some others.

“Big meet, exciting meet,” he added.

Libertyville sophomore Max Seres went 4-for-4 on Saturday, helping crews of Wildcats post winning times in the 400 medley (3:45.03), 400 medley (4 by 100 IM, 3:59.25), 350 backstroke (3:30.92) and 400 free relay (3:26.93) relays.

“Get up and go,” Seres, a RISE Aquatic Club member, said of his approach in the 400 free relay. “I felt we could have gone faster, but it’s early in the season and we’ll be fine.

“We’re such a close team, bonding over breakfast before morning practices and at pasta parties.”

Other victorious Libertyville relay legs included William Neff, Oliver Rusk, Joshua Kallemeyn, David Drouhard, Nicholas Ozimek, Luke Bucciero, Max Shores, Shreyas Moorthy, Maxwell Seiberlich and Gabriel Papanos.

Among Stevenson’s six triumphant relays was the Patriots’ foursome of Justin Zhao, Sirui Wang, Felix Wang and Timothy Rhee in the varsity 400 medley relay. They collaborated for a time of 3:37.32 — nearly 7 seconds faster than the runner-up.

“Most coaches here got a first look at what their team can do,” said Lillydahl, who coached at his first Patriot Relays back in 1993 and plans to step down after the season. “Kids like this meet because the events aren’t typical high school races, and they’re swimming with fans in the stands.

“You hear fans cheer, you get going.”

Additional Pats who earned first-place relay medals included Brendan Jones, Allan Zhu, Maxim Kolbunov, Alan Czaja, Avinash Rao, Derrick Lee, Liam Cuasay and Hudson Swanson.

Fremd, which defeated Rolling Meadows in its season opener Friday night, placed fourth (149 points) in the Gold division.

Viking coach Adams wore a team shirt at Saturday’s three-hour meet. On the back it reads, “NOBODY rides this ship. We all ROW. We’re ALL in.”

“In addition to this being a fun meet, it’s also an opportunity that lets teams compete guys at all levels, from freshman to varsity,” Adams said in mid-meet. “The youngest members in our program are getting an early taste of what high school varsity swimming is like.”

Landyn Kruse paced St. Charles North (5th, Gold) with a first-place 23.22 in the sophomore 50 free; McHenry’s Robbie Rosenbaum won the frosh 50 free in 22.65 and helped the three-legged 350 back relay silver in 3:36.78 with Lincoln Soderholm and Jakob Axelson; Palatine sped to a pair of runner-up showings: Brodie Piecuch, Colten Hilgers, Kyle Carlson and Nick Maslowski (4:40.05 in the 500 free relay); and Hilgers, Maslowski, Owen Kain and Colin Mielas (1:37.21 in the 200 free relay).

Cary-Grove co-op senior Victor Praczkowski clocked a third-place 22.29 in the senior 50 free, matching the finishes of teammates Nathan Scerbac (24.22) and Ignas Venslauskas (23.78) in the frosh 50 free and sophomore 50 free, respectively.

“A meet like this doesn’t cater to our strength,” said C-G coach Scott Lattyak, whose squad placed sixth (98 points) in the Gold division. “We have a lot of short-burst sprinters.

“The 200 free relay will probably be our best event this winter.”

Libertyville’s Nathanial Stouffer topped the varsity diving field with 344.5 points, while Stevenson’s Lennon Grossenbach tallied 209.55 to win the frosh/soph Gold diving segment.

‘Fall’ guy: Stevenson graduate and Patriot Aquatic Club swim coach Kevin Zakrzewksi programmed Stevenson’s natatorium scoreboard to depict falling snowflakes throughout Saturday’s Patriot Relays.

“It has a ‘Game of Thrones’ look to it, don’t you think?” said Lillydahl of Zakrzewksi’s handiwork.