North Stars take 4th; C-G's Curtis medals

Not to tick off anyone who specializes in throwing horseshoes or hand grenades or people who drop atomic bombs -- but close really does count in a lot of things in addition to your chosen crafts.

Take boys swimming. St. Charles North finished fourth in Saturday's IHSA meet at Evanston, one place outside the trophy hunt. Are the North Stars a success for reaching such a height or a disappointment for not bringing back a large piece of hardware for a trophy case?

While certainly disappointed, the North Stars collectively asserted the strides their team has taken this year, one year removed from a fifth-place finish that was propelled by three very strong senior swimmers.

"If you read the forums online or if you read the papers, everyone threw us out of the mix of things right away," St. Charles North junior Dan Stanek said. "Oh St. Charles (North), they lost way too many guys. We lost three strong guys -- Chris Peterson, Doug Brooks and Bobby Force. They were all on relays. We came back with a young team and put together some great swims. It's definitely an accomplishment."

Neuqua Valley won its first state title in the meet, defeating New Trier 144-139. Glenbrook South was third with 118 points and the North Stars came next with 101 points -- 1 point more than Naperville North.

Cary-Grove's Brent Curtis, the only Fox Valley area swimmer performing on Saturday, finished ninth in the 100 free in a time of 47.39.

The North Stars added another championship to their honor roll, and this was the school's first relay title. John Higgins, Stanek, Jimmy Brooks and Nick Smith swam 1:35.00 and won by nearly 1.5 seconds over New Trier.

"That's a big accomplishment," Stanek said. "We really came together and everyone did their part."

Stanek also finished 11th in the 100 breaststroke in his first state meet experience. A junior, Stanek will join Smith and Alex Peterson as seniors with state finals experience next season.

The North Stars nearly added an individual title as well. Jimmy Brooks battled throughout the 100 butterfly with Bloomington's Justin Wolfe. Entering the final 25 yards, Brooks surged, but fell by .3 to Wolfe and settled for second place -- which was still an improvement from last year's sixth-place finish.

"I put all I had into it but just didn't come out on top," Brooks said. "But I still had a pretty good time. I had a race strategy to follow. I wanted to go out conservative and come back as fast as I could."

Brooks was nearly even with Wolfe as they turned for the final leg.

"I was pretty drained from yesterday," Brooks said. "I wasn't able to come back as strongly as I would have liked."

The other North Stars' finishes included Matt Baumann's fourth-place finish in the 100 backstroke and ninth-placing in the 200 freestyle. John Higgins was fifth in the 100 backstroke and ninth in the 500 freestyle. Smith was 12 th in the 50 freestyle.

St. Charles North's 200 freestyle relay was ninth and its 400 freestyle relay was sixth.

St. Charles East had two individual swims on Saturday. B.J. Roth punctuated the first by finishing as the consolation heat winner in the 200 freestyle. The seventh-place finish was the senior's best finish in the state meet.

"I had one swim today and I wanted to leave everything in the pool," Roth said. "It's a great way to finish your high school career."

Roth held off a late charge by Byron's Joe Dufour to win the consolation heat.

"My strategy was to go out fast and then to try to hang on," Roth said. "That's what I did. I really tried to kick it in the last 50."

The Saints' other finals swimmer was junior Ken Tiltges, who capped a breakout championship season by finishing sixth in the 100 breaststroke.

"It's been pretty much amazing," Tiltges said. "It's pretty hard to describe and I don't think it's sunk in yet. But it's cool."

Tiltges will join state meet qualifier Adam Carnell as senior leaders of the 2008 Saints team.

"(Roth) has been really great help in practice and in other ways," Tiltges said. "We're gaining a couple of freshmen who are really good. I think we'll do just fine -- I'm not worried about next season."