Boys swimming: Scouting the 2025-26 Cook County and Lake County season
BARRINGTON
The Broncos won the MSL and Barrington sectional last year before taking 19th at the state meet.
Back from the 16th place 400 relay team are seniors Payton Cotner and Will Pinchot along with junior Quinn Bennett. Other state qualifiers returning are seniors Eric Ding and Luke Keller and juniors Matt Bucaro and Jackson Cartright while Barrington adds sophomore David Garcia and freshman David Qi.
"We want to keep our MSL streak alive," said Barrington coach Alex Mikolajewski. “We want to qualify as many individuals and relays to state as possible."
BUFFALO GROVE
The Bison, under coach Thomas Cooney, hope to improve on a fourth-place MSL effort, a third-place finish in the sectionals and 18th at the state meet.
Senior David Olaru, junior Ben Inglis and sophomore Luka Gavrilos are back from the state qualifying 200 freestyle relay.
Others back are seniors Daniel Malovanyy, Emmett Nix, Owen Shoop, Edauardo Sosa, Nicholas Shomali, Brian Dumiter, Emanuel Gavrilos, Luka Stojanovic and Tomasz Sanadiradze and juniors Matt Vasileus and Joe Buttitta.
Newcomers include sophomore Daniel Arce and freshman Cris Bota.
“We want to be competitive in the newly formed MSL division," said Cooney. ”We want to be competitive across a variety of events. We won't have many weak spots in the lineup. Several athletes are poised to score big points. In the new division, there are no off nights. Every dual meet is a battle. We graduated both state scorers in Nolan Smith and Michael Surowaniec. But, we have the right pieces to compete in the newly formed divisions.“
CONANT
The Cougars were third in the MSL, third at the talent-filled St. Charles North sectional and 36th in the state a year ago.
Returning for the Cougars is Dominic Kurek, a state qualifier in the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Kurek and senior Michael Ryba are back from a 14th-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay. Ryba and Kurek were on the state qualifying 200 freestyle relay team.
Joining Kurek and Ryba as returners are seniors Victor Kozlowski, Neil Kandalgaonkar, Alan Munik and Marcin Mysza, juniors Devin Burke and Luca Tamas and sophomore Brayden Tu. Newcomers are junior Aman Sagynbekov and freshmen Dawid Frak, Alan Morales and Victor Otero.
Junior Trevor Hanson is the defending state champion in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke in the Athletes with Disabilities division.
“We have three returning form the state meet who have state medals," said coach Brian Drenth. ”We are looking forward to more of athletes joining them at the state meet. We want them to leave their mark on our program. We have a huge class of senior athletes and incoming freshmen who will look for mentorship and prepare for success. Barrington, Fremd, Prospect and Buffalo Grove have strong swimmers this season. We are excited to swim against them.“
ELK GROVE
The Grens took 11th in the MSL and seventh at the sectionals last year and bring back seniors Ryan Keene and Michael Dabrowski, juniors Sergej Stevenovic and Caden Chavez and sophomore Mikey Sciog.
"We want to work hard on positives from the previous season" Elk Grove coach Keith Kura said. “We want to create new positive traditions for the Elk Grove swimming program."
FREMD
First-year coach Tim Daniel is hoping to improve on a 31st-place finish at the state meet a year ago.
The top swimmer back is senior Marcus Witkowski, who was 10th in the 100 backstroke.
Others back are senior AJ Wessberg, junior Alex Ivanov and senior AJ Wessburg.
“Fremd has a long tradition of competition at a high standard," said Daniel. ”We have a good group of returning athletes. We want to compete for conference and sectional championships. We want more athletes swimming at the state meet on Saturday."
Others looking to contribute are seniors Shayam Purohit, Finley Winegar, Ryan You, Daniel Zhou, Munhl Aldar Amarjargal, Phil Celeste, Avery Dodge, Zander Froman, Matt Ho, Alexander Johannson, Sanjay Ketheswann, Nazar Kovalskyi, Mustufa Pektas, Matt Pennell, Varun Rumesh, Ben Rodi, Dan Saletta and Mohammed Yahyaa.
The Vikings also have juniors Adelyn Conrad, Radu Dumitrascu, Jacob Faust, Kehoe Fay, Akininbo Ide, Justin Lee, Oleksandr Malinovsky, Aarush Parikh and Elizabeth Patla.
Fremd’s sophomores are Amarjargal Munkhbileg, Dominic Eichinger, Phillip Fryz, Jackson Gross, William Guild, Himal Harilal, Zach Heffernan, George Kolev, Oleksandr Kravchuk, Ethan Lee, Ryan Lee, Jonathan Lin, Justin Lin, Ben Lorig, Nasta Nanavati, Rihito Oshi, Amar Osman, Ethan Ryu, Ryan Sanluecha, Zach Schillinger, Adrian Szabo and George Takev.
Freshmen Sam Zhao, Michael Patla and Noah Giangreco join the team.
HOFFMAN ESTATES
The Hawks were 12th in the MSL and seventh in the sectionals a year ago.
Led by senior Izzy Syed and juniors Marty Stolarz, Fatih Ozmen, Brandon Rush and Skyler Navarro, coach Adam Longo has his goals set for the season.
"We want to be top six in the MSL and top five in the sectionals," said Longo. “We want new school records and state qualifiers. The MSL is tough with many state qualifiers.”
LAKES
The Eagles’ top swimmer is coach Mike Gedville's son Mitch, who was a state qualifier in the 100 back a year ago and headed to Division I Northern Kentucky to swim.
Also back is junior Anthony Underwood.
LAKE ZURICH
Seniors Owen Becker and Kryspin Szczech and juniors Jovan Aryal and Sebastian Railion lead the Bears.
“We are looking forward to the opportunity to compete for Lake Zurich in the conference and sectional meet,” coach Jill Kragseth said.
LIBERTYVILLE
The Wildcats were 40th in the state and second in the North Suburban Conference behind state powerhouse Stevenson.
Back for Greg Herman's troop are seniors Luke Bucciero, Max Shores and Max Sieberlich, juniors Max Seres, Solomon Ellingson, Zane Rihman and Peter Conlon, and sophomores Oliver Rusk, Will Neff, Josh Kallemyn and Oliver Rusk.
"We want to compete for second in the conference behind Stevenson," said Herman. “We have several swimmers who just missed the state cut last season. We want to break through this season and get to the state meet. We have to swim faster."
MAINE SOUTH
The Hawks were 24th in the state, seventh in the sectionals and fifth in the CSL South a year ago.
Caleb Larkin, the lone senior on the team, was fourth in the state in 1-meter diving last season.
Others back for coach Don Kura are juniors Nick Drcha, Max Dudek, Max Fraley and Andrew Steinfels along with sophomores Mike Saviski, Charlie McCauley, Sam Doubleday, Diego Louise and Mike Shaw.
Newcomers include sophomore Kacper Modzelewski and freshmen Chase Juiris and Jack Schneider.
"We want to improve our practice habits every week," said Kura. “We want to bring energy and competitiveness to every practice and meet. It starts every day in practice. We are a relatively young and inexperienced team without many seniors in the program. It is imperative the younger guys learn how to compete. We want to be competitive against the top end of the conference. The CSL South is tough as usual.”
MUNDELEIN
The Mustangs are led by junior Jack Hansen who was 27th in the state in 1-meter diving as a sophomore as Mundelein took fourth in the NSC and ninth in the sectionals.
Also returning are seniors Cameron Wiklund, Shehan Chandrasekeva, Kyle Mason, Adrian Eager and Logan Capistrano along with juniors Logan Vale, Arthur Ostrovskiy, Justin Gorsica, Sam Solano Keil and Jared Fox and sophomores Dan Tatevosian, Griffin Rogers and Marek Sikora.
Freshmen Dominic Olivia, Alan Turskiy and Mason McCreery hope to contribute.
"We hope to improve on our NSC standings and qualify one or two relays and individuals to state,“ coach Melissa Healy said.
PALATINE
Seniors Sam Piazza, Colten Hilgers, Kyle Carlson and Colbe Mielas lead the Pirates, seventh last year at sectionals. The team adds juniors Ethan Kain, Michael O' Hare and Charlie Jackson.
"In and out of the pool we want to be consistent with hard work," said coach Katie Mroz. “We want to reestablish the foundation of the program with 25 freshmen and sophomores. We have a great history of bringing new athletes into the program with no swimming experience. It gives opportunities for the upperclassmen to have a big impact on the growth of the underclassmen and the success of the program. With the shuffling of the divisions we hope to be strong in the dual meets. We want to create strong connections among teammates which values relationships and team atmosphere.”
ROLLING MEADOWS
The Mustangs under coach Monika Chiapetta return seniors Adam Rosen and Owen Kalweit and juniors Shayne Hanik and Fynn Kirshner.
“We want everybody to end up with their best times," said Chiapetta.
ST. VIATOR
The Lions were 11th in the Metro Catholic Aquatics Conference and 11th in the sectionals last year and bring back senior Marcus Montesclaros and juniors Hudson Radford, Ethan Boudreau and Lukasz Petrocci along with sophomore Ethan Collins.
Newcomers include freshmen Andre Lindstrom, Carter Harrick, Max Hohmeier and Lynn Boudreau.
“Most of our team is returning," said coach Dan Emary. ”We want to build upon last year. We are very young with only one senior. With being such a young team we need to find our identity as people. We want to swim faster and have people step into a leadership role. We want to move up in the conference and in the sectionals.“
SCHAUMBURG
Juniors Will Dohrn and Ben Villagren and freshmen Frank Patrzalek and Alex Banicz are among the swimmers to watch for coach Sam Gabriel whose team took fifth in the MSL, fourth at sectionals and 17th at state a year ago.
“We have a small but strong group of upperclassmen," said Gabriel. ”We have a huge group of incoming freshmen who I am excited to see in the water and board. We are coming off two of the most successful Schaumburg boys swim and dive seasons. We have graduated a lot of talented and excellent swimmers. We hope the underclassmen buy into the Saxon culture. We are in the Division I of the MSL which is deep and talented. We feel we get strong competition each week."
STEVENSON
Jason Gibson takes over for long-time coach Dpug Lillydahl. The Patriots have one of the top programs in the state.
Stevenson is shooting for a 12th straight North Suburban Conference title and an 11th straight sectional crown. In the 2024-25, Stevenson placed sixth in the state with 190 points.
Junior Kasper Lee was third in the 100 backstroke while junior Allen Zhu was seventh in the 200 individual medley and senior Josh Wang was 16th 100 breaststroke.
The fifth-place 200 freestyle relay team consisted of returners Wang and senior Kyler Chou. Lee and Wang were part of the sixth-place 200 medley relay; the ninth-place 400 freestyle relay team returns Chou and Lee.
Other state qualifiers back are seniors Brendan Jones and Sam Rahimzadeh.
Returners include seniors Jacob Suby, Phillip Qiu, Justin Zhao, Armeet Gill and Kenny Weisner along with juniors Pete Ma, Varun Para, Ben Tosyali and Hudson Swanson, and sophomores Adam Braverman, Brendan Kim, Jonatha Liang and Nick Tsirline.
Freshmen include Ron Sverdik, Max Miecznikowski, Elvis Gavrichuk and Itay Sheinman.
"We want to finish top five in the state," said Gibson. "We graduated state medalist powerhouse swimmers. We have returners back ready to step up and maintain Stevenson as an elite powerhouse program in Illinois. We open the season with renewed energy. Our senior class is focused to end their career strong. The team articulated their ambitious goals. The conference is strong with Libertyville, Lake Forest and Mundelein. We will have fierce competition in the NSCC. We have a lot of goals driving us to push to new heights. The boys will leave every thing in the water every single meet."
VERNON HILLS
The Cougars, eighth in the state and winners of the Central Suburban League, are led by senior Yary Plaxsim, who was third in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 500 freestyle at state, and he was on the sixth place 400 relay.
Cody Blumenfield was 15th in the 1-meter dive.
Other state qualifiers back are seniors Edgar Chan and Will Blackmer.
Returning for coach Jim Pardun are seniors Veek Bokka, Jayden Chua, Marshall Hills, Maruthi Kavuri, Adin Matthew, Sashank Muppaani, Santiago Rodriguez, Marko Rovenchuk, Leo Schifrin, Tyler Starke and Sanjit Vuppumuthla, plus juniors Marco Jingco, Logan Dye, Nojus Kesilis and Danny Spivak, and sophomores Ike Dio and Jack Janzen.
"Our kids are hungry to defend our conference for a third straight year," said Pardun. “The path is not easy with with 19 seniors graduating . We have a legacy to uphold. We have a high level of competition in our dual meets which promises to be exciting. Wins are not handed out in the CSL. We are laser focused."
WARREN
The Blue Devils, coached by Kim Lobitz, return seniors Dash Rutzen and Sam Phariss and junior Sam Fabian.
WHEELING
Seniors Paul Glinkin and Adam Akhter were part of the 17th place 200 medley relay team for coach Tod Schwager.
Akhter was also 25th in the 100 backstroke.
Other returners are junior Jackson Lee and sophomore Nick Skorski.
“We want to get a couple of qualifiers for state, grow as a team, improve techniques, and decrease times," said Schwager. ”We want to be competitive and win close races."