Libertyville's training program adds up to success

Six figures is benchmark for earnings power that is often talked about in the financial world.

In high school swimming circles, 100,000 has a totally different meaning. Many area schools try to swim 100,000 yards over nine or ten practice sessions during winter break training.

It's never fun to swim that much in such a short period of time, but the rewards for this type of work can be enormous when tapering begins during the season's stretch run.

Libertyville, undefeated in dual meets, had all but four swimmers on its varsity reach the 100,000-yard club.

When Chris Wetteland became the Wildcats' coach this fall, the team leaders told him they wanted to continue the tradition of 100,000 yards.

"It's a ridiculous amount of swimming, but it's something they really wanted," Wetteland said. "It's a chance for the kids to really get their training base up."

At Stevenson, the Patriots also make going at least 100,000 yards a priority.

"The guys were really able to push through it," coach Susan Whitehouse said.

The Patriots swam in the morning and late afternoon. In between, the boys often hung out together. What were they doing?

"Probably complaining about me," Whitehouse joked. "They were really tired, but it was really productive."

Despite the intense workouts, Stevenson had enough left to place first Saturday at a seven-team college invitational at Vernon Hills. In this invite, almost all of event yardages were twice what they would be in a normal high school meet.

Ty Kuper went a season-best 1:53.3 in the 200 freestyle to finish second. Brad Feng was a strong third in the same event.

Last year, 100,000 yards was not a realistic goal for the majority of Vernon Hills' swimmers.

Not anymore.

Vernon Hills had 10 swimmers reach that plateau, compared to just three guys the season before.

"The (practices) were awesome, probably the best we've had all season," coach Kedric Greenawalt said. "It was like a boot camp where you suffer together and have more solidarity as a result. They fought their way through. It was a tremendous accomplishment."

The training paid early dividends for freshman Mark Genchanok. He swam the 1,000 freestyle on Saturday in 12:37.16. His two splits were faster than his previous best in the 500.

"He saw the benefit of the hard work and commitment," Greenawalt said.

Warren takes a different approach from some of the other schools, although the Blue Devils work just as hard.

Coach Erik Rogers likes to extend the normal practice from two to three hours, but to only swim once a day. In addition, the Blue Devils do dry-land work and spend time in the weight room.

"We go hard for that one session, but I like them to have a few more hours to recover from workouts," Rogers said. "The extra hour of practice adds (a real) challenge to the workout."