Boys swimming: No stopping Barrington in Mid-Suburban League meet
Host Buffalo Grove and Fremd tied for second place with 211 points at the Mid-Suburban League boys swimming and diving meet with strong performances Saturday afternoon. But there was just no stopping the Barrington dynasty as the Broncos took home their eighth straight MSL championship with 250 points.
Prospect placed fourth with 180 points behind a strong diving performance followed by Conant (168 points) in fifth and Hersey (87 points) in sixth.
Barrington's road to the team title featured a first-place time of 21.67 seconds from senior Will Pinchot in the 50-yard freestyle. Teammate Luke Keller took home first place in the 500-yard freestyle (4:53.88).
“I think we did a really good job of stepping up all across the board, and every kid had the mission of keeping this thing going,” said Barrington coach Alex Mikolajewski. “We have a lot of kids who are just focused on one or two things and how they can help the team, and they're putting the team ahead of themselves.”
After qualifying for state last year in the 50 freestyle, Pinchot is hoping for big things for his squad the next two weeks.
“I think it all starts with just having a team that at it's core are good people, and hard workers,” Pinchot said. “The key today was just being confident and it was just a matter of doing what we knew. And we're setting our sights even higher next week.”
Fremd junior Alex Ivanov won the 200-yard IM in 1:54.42 as well as the 100-yard freestyle in 46.63.
“(Ivanov) has done really well, he's been one of our most consistent swimmers all year, and he got it done,” said Fremd coach Tim Daniel. “Matt Pennel was pretty much our swimmer of the meet, and he started us off right with a great split in the 200 medley. The team is doing well even though we're not fully tapered yet.”
Buffalo Grove's 200 free relay team of Ben Inglis, Maxim Pralat, Bris Bota and David Olaru posted a winning time of 1:27.39.
“It was a great day, we were right at our season best or a little ahead so I'm really looking forward to Saturday at Stevenson,” said Buffalo Grove coach Tom Cooney of next week’s sectional. "(The 200 free relay) were under the state cut-off time so hopefully they can do it again next Saturday and it was their best time by a second and a half.”
Conant's Michal Ryba was impressive in winning both the 200-yard freestyle in 1:43.50 and the 100-yard butterfly in 51.53 seconds. The Cougars' 200 medley relay team of Ryba, Dominik Kurek, Devin Burke and Alan Munik won in 1:35.83. Kurek was the 100-yard breaststroke champion with a time of 56.55 seconds. Ryba, Kurek, Burke and Marcin Mysza also won the 400-free relay (3:13.09).
Wheeling's Adam Akhter (53.30 seconds) edged Hersey's Kuba Pamula by .27 seconds for first place in the 100-yard backstroke. Conant's Trevor Hanson won the 200-yard free AWD, the 100-free AWD, the 50-free AWD and 100-yard breaststroke AWD.
In the diving competition, Prospect sophomore Adam Banas easily soared to first place with 522.75 points while Buffalo Grove's Luka Tarabin was the runner-up with 450.6 points.
“I feel like keeping a clean mindset was very important to me and trying to keep great consistency,” said Banas, whose team is at the Downers Grove South sectional. “I'm ready for sectionals, I just want to keep my consistency, and I think I will perform at a solid pace.”
Barrington's Matt Bucara took third place with 420.55 points followed by Prospect's Philip Tonev (414.6) in fourth, and Elk Grove's Daniel Dickson (353.4) in fifth.
“(Banas and Tonev) are both state qualifiers from last year,” said Prospect coach Alfonso Lopez. “They're two of the better divers in the area, and if they get downstate they should have a pretty good showing.”