Boys swimming: Barrington wins fifth straight MSL crown
After winning the Mid-Suburban League boys swimming championship the last four years, Barrington officially became a dynasty Saturday afternoon with its fifth straight MSL title at the 12-team meet hosted by Buffalo Grove.
The Broncos raised the first-place plaque with 211 points to defeat runner-up Prospect (194 points) while Conant (189 points) was a close third. Behind diving champion Michael Surowaniec, the host Bison made a late surge to take fourth place with 154 points. Schaumburg (139) took fifth while Wheeling edged Fremd 135-134 for sixth. The Vikings tied with Barrington for the 2023 MSL crown.
Notre Dame-bound senior Luke Bucaro was one of the many keys to victory for the Broncos as he won both the 200-IM in 1:54.06 and the 500-freestyle in 4:41.79.
"I'm happy with how everyone is doing on the team, and happy with how I'm doing," said Bucaro. "I had my best time of the season in the 200-IM, and I'm shooting for top three at state in those two events."
Barrington coach Alex Mikolajewski's squad in gearing up for sectionals and state the next two weeks. "The most important things we were looking for was to use little tactics to get better for next week," Mikolajewski said. "He (Bucaro) is a machine, today was pretty par for the course for him, and he is one of the best practicer's I've ever been around."
Prospect was led by Auggie Lapys' winning time of 50.37 in the 100-yard butterfly and teammate Alex Verdet's first-place time of 59.15 in the 100-yard breaststroke.
"He (Lapys) is going to start tapering down for state and we're hoping he can get a medal," said Prospect coach Alfonso Lopez. "This is just a dress rehearsal for next week (sectional meet), and our goal is to put multiple relays and multiple individuals in the state meet."
Conant senior Ayden Woo was impressive in winning the 200-freestyle in 1:44.92. Woo also joined teammates Alex Seeman, Michal Ryba, and Dominik Kurek in winning the 200-freestyle relay in 1:26.95. The Cougars' same foursome also closed out the meet by easily winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:10.89.
"We're just trying to get ourselves ready for some good seed times for sectionals," said Conant coach Brian Drenth. "He (Woo) works super-hard so I wouldn't put anything past him because anything he puts his mind to he can accomplish (at state)."
Schaumburg teammates Dennis Bobiv and James Bredfield clocked identical 21.86 times to win the 50-yard freestyle while Fremd's Marcus Witkowski was the 100-yard backstroke champion in 51.77.
Wheeling got a first-place time of 47.83 from Van Paul in the 100-yard freestyle. Paul and teammates Adam Akhter, Paul Glinkin, and Kristian Pavlov won the 200-medley relay in 1:36.62 to barely nip Prospect (1:36.63) in second.
"He (Paul) is a returning state qualifier so he has high expectations of himself,- we just help him to get there," said Wheeling coach Tod Schwager. "They swam out of their minds (in the 200-medley relay), they did awesome, and I didn't expect them to be in first place."
The diving competition came down to two divers going for the crown, and Surowaniec held off Prospect's Adam Banas 477.15 to 470.35 for first place. Hersey's Nate Mabry took third place with 442.65 points followed by Wheeling's Ostap Mykhalevych (429.15 points) in fourth, and Palatine's Quinn Stojkovich (401.60 points) in fifth.
"I definitely wasn't expecting to win, but I was 100 percent sure I had a chance," said Surowaniec, who has qualified for the state meet twice already. "I just had to make sure I kept a positive attitude after the dives I missed, and not let them affect my other dives."