Palatine, Hoffman show progress

A couple of boys swimming teams making significant progress met Thursday at Hoffman Estates, and on this night, perhaps Palatine made just a little more.

The visiting Pirates earned a 99-85 victory over the Hawks and demonstrated to coach Ed Richardson that they're on the right track for even better performances later this season.

"These guys I've got, they're hungry," said Richardson. "After every race, we try to find something positive, something to build on, and also something that could have been done a little better.

"I can see that they're really paying attention and buying into what we're trying to accomplish, so I'm really optimistic about the season. I like it that they're not satisfied."

Two keys for the Pirates: A victory from Brad Ferris, Dan Sommerfeld, John Giuliano and Greg Bell in the 200-meter medley relay, and a 1-2 finish in the 100 free from Dylan Weissman (59.10) and Ferris (59.46). Other Palatine individual winners were Trevor Leonard in the 100 backstroke, Weissmann in the 200 IM and Giuliano in the 100 fly in an impressive 1:05.60.

Hoffman Estates lost eight seniors from last year's team, but this year's group has an interesting mix of potential and experience.

Senior Akash Shah won the 400 free in 5:04.42, and senior Paul Organ placed second in the 100 back and third in the 100 fly. They're showing the kind of leadership coach Josh Schumacher had been hoping to see as he finds the best approach for a team brimming with options.

"We kind of fooled around with the lineup for a few meets, but tonight was the first time we kind of put our best meet out there," he said.

And the results were encouraging, as Schumacher saw nearly all season-best times.

The 200 free relay of freshman Nick Jessee, junior Michael Christen, Organ and freshman Sang Han won in 1:47.63. Individual wins came from Jessee in the 200 free (2:11.34), from Christen in the 50 free (27.11) and from Han in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.22).

It's not only the Hawks swimmers who are young - sophomore diver Nick Cannella won with a score of 160.75.

"I thought our guys did a real nice job today," Schumacher said. "I think with any young team, there's a period at the start of the year where they need to understand what it really takes to excel at the varsity level, and the kind of commitment it takes in practices. But today really showed me a lot about our guys."