Boys swimming: Stevenson dominates at North Suburban Conference meet

One inspiring quote raced through Lake Zurich senior Kryspin Szczech’s mind as he swam the 200-yard IM at Saturday’s North Suburban Conference boys swimming and diving meet at Stevenson.

“Work until your idols become your rivals,” the Bear shared after overwhelming the event’s field with a winning time of 2:00.1 — more than two seconds faster than his seed time and more than three seconds faster than the runner-up’s time — in Lincolnshire.

“It helped,” Szczech added, later noting he’d choose another empowering mantra ahead of his next big meet. “That’s all I thought about while racing.”

Stevenson’s crew, meanwhile, was unrivaled at the conference meet for the 11th year in a row and the 18th time since 2004. Patriots entrants won 10 of the 12 events Saturday and finished either second or third in 11 races.

“It’s such a tight-knit group,” said first-year Stevenson coach Joe Gibson after watching his band of bathing cap-wearing darts amass 426.5 points to runner-up Mundelein’s 339. “It’s also resilient. They all got up and raced, no matter how tired they were feeling today. They’ve had ups and downs all season but never complained during the down times.”

Pats senior Josh Wang went 4-for-4 in the home water, topping the 100 freestyle (an off event) in 47.58 and serving as a swift leg for three triumphant relays (200 medley, 200 free, 400 free).

“It’s our team’s strong mindset, at practices and at meets,” Wang said of what allows this current edition to sustain the program’s success. “We push each other. And our new coach continues to show us how much he cares about us, just like (former coach) Doug Lillydahl did.”

Kasper Lee (200 free, 1:41.93), Armeet Gill (50 free, 21.82), Kyler Chou (100 butterfly, 50.58), Max Miecznikowski (500 free, 4:53.81), Allan Zhu (100 backstroke, 51.66) and Brendan Jones (100 breaststroke, 1:00.47) also touched first in individual events for the hosts.

Libertyville placed third with 330 points, followed by Lake Forest (284), Zion-Benton (195), Warren (181) and Waukegan (57).

“I want to credit every team here today,” Gibson said. “The coaches have been nothing but welcoming to me in my first year in the North Suburban. They do such a great job running their programs, and their swimmers and divers work hard.”

A diver, by the way, gave Mundelein the early lead in the team standings Friday night, when the segment was staged at Libertyville. Mustangs junior Jack Hansen notched an impressive first-place total of 504.9 points, earning 9s on his first (front 1.5) and last (front 1.5 with a full twist) dives.

Hansen took third at the NSC meet as a freshman and second at the same meet as a sophomore.

“That was my hope, to break 500 this weekend,” said Hansen, a Patriot Aquatic Club diver. “I worked hard on improving my entries in the offseason.”

Mundelein also received a runner-up effort from its 200 medley relay (1:38.0; Cameron Wiklund, Marek Sikora, Daniel Tatevosian and Griffin Rogers) and a third-place showing from the same quartet in the 200 free relay (1:30.68).

“Our theme today was, ‘Do it as a team,’” said Mundelein coach Melissa Healy.

Libertyville senior Max Shores had a seed time of 5:05.81 in the 500 free. His aim was to hit the wall and look up at a 4-something time next to his name on the scoreboard.

What the Wildcat saw: 4:59.98.

“The 500 free is all about keeping pace,” Shores said. “I’ve been a middle-distance swimmer pretty much since I took up swimming, and the 200 free was my favorite event for a while. My mom, (Katie), told me this season, ‘You need to focus on the 500 free.’ You know what? She was right.”

Libertyville’s other rapid Max, Seres, silvered in the 100 backstroke with a time of 52.23 and bronzed in the 200 free (1:49.6).

“I’m really happy,” Wildcats coach Greg Herman said before praising swims from William Neff (50 free, 100 free), Gabriel Papanos (100 breaststroke) and Solomon Ellingson (100 breaststroke). “We had a ton of great times — some dropped like stones.”

Warren coach Kim Lobitz deployed a contingent of mostly young Blue Devils. Her team features only two seniors and two juniors.

“We devote a lot of time to teaching techniques, but they’re getting better,” she said. “You can’t swim fast until you swim correctly. The goals today were to have good races and do the right things.”

Warren’s Adrian Barit had never competed in an 11-dive meet until Friday. He placed a solid seventh (255.55).

Stevenson’s other victorious relay members were Zhu, Chou, Ron Sverdilk, Elvis Gavrilchik and Sam Rahimzadeh.

LZ’s Sebastian Railian took second in the 50 free (21.91).

Swimmers and divers vie for state berths at sectionals next weekend.

“I like coaching the week before a sectional,” Mundelein’s Healy said. “It’s a mix of excitement and nervousness.”