Naperville North rolls on
The Naperville North swimmers were really "beat up" from a grueling practice schedule that is typical of winter break, but you'd never know it from the Huskies' race results on Tuesday.
The host of the Naperville North College Events Invite won nine events, including all three relays, and won the annual meet with 206 points to second-place Naperville Central's 163. Waubonsie Valley was third with 116. Marmion was fourth with 104 points.
Though there were numerous success stories for the Huskies, the co-swimmers of the meet would have to be Will Heidler and Andrew Eiken, both of whom won a pair of individual races and swam on two winning relays.
Kevin Butz and Joel Demuth weren't far behind as each produced a victory in an individual race and also contributed to a pair of victorious relays.
"I've been beating them up as much as I could," said Naperville North coach Kurt Johns. "We had a hard practice yesterday and again today before the meet. But for them to come back here and swim as well as they did today is encouraging."
"This is a great meet because it gives the guys a chance to mix up distances," Heidler said. "We swam well considering we had that practice this morning and the meet this afternoon. Welcome to winter break. The longer races push us a little harder and could make us that much stronger at the end of the year."
Heidler was particularly outstanding because nobody even came close to him in any of his four races.
In the 400 medley relay victory, which he shared with Nick Bessler, Eiken and Connor Hubbard, the Huskies finished in 3:38.05 just about five seconds ahead of Naperville Central, and that was the closest any opponent got to Heidler all day.
He won the 400 IM in 4:04.92, almost 14 seconds ahead of Jeff Depew of Naperville Central. And then Heidler won the 500 freestyle in 4:43.43 or seven seconds ahead of Marmion's Ben Kanute.
The final race of the day, the 800 freestyle relay, put an exclamation point on the meet for the Huskies as Heidler, Demuth, Eiken and Butz combined for a 7:17.40, more than 20 seconds ahead of second-place Naperville Central.
Johns was pleased with the team's effort and with the implications it had for the postseason.
"All the guys have stepped up," Johns said. "They worked hard in the off-season and they're elevating how they're working in practice and at meets. Everyone's focused on the goal."
Eiken was the winner in both the 200 freestyle and the 200 butterfly, while Butz took home the top prize in the 1000 freestyle and Demuth finished first in the 100 freestyle.
The other Huskies winner was the 200 freestyle relay team of Bessler, Jon Law, Butz and Demuth, which swam a 1:29.92.
Naperville Central's Depew won the 200 backstroke in 1:57.94 and Mark Menis finished first in the 50 freestyle in 22.21.
The Warriors also won two events with junior Alex Ding taking the 200 breaststroke in 2:14.86 and Kyle Machalinski taking the diving competition with 412.30 points.