Boys swimming: Vernon Hills looks good in winning Green Division at Patriot Relays
Vernon Hills’ swimmers and divers wore ties to Saturday’s Patriot Relays at Stevenson.
They took them off to take care of business in the water and then put them back on before exiting the natatorium.
“It was (senior co-captain) Edgar Chan’s idea,” said VH junior Yury Plaksin. “The team wore ties to meets during his freshman season. He wanted to bring it back.
“We look sharp. It helps us stand out on deck.”
The Cougars — in the program’s debut appearance at the 16-team, 40-event meet — didn’t need a dapper fashion accessory to separate themselves from the invite’s seven other Green division teams once the meet started.
Collective talent and speed left foes in their wake and turned heads along the way.
Coach Jim Pardun’s crew won 9 relay championships, a pair of diving titles and two 50-yard freestyle championships en route to a first-place total of 261 points.
New Trier captured the Gold division title with 272 points, ahead of Stevenson’s A team (212). A squad of Stevenson JVers and a handful of varsity Patriots finished runner-up (196 points) to VH in the Green.
The meet featured a slew of unique races, from the 350-yard backstroke relay with only three legs to a series of elimination 50-free heats to relays that required each team to deploy a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.
“It’s more fun with all of the different events, but it’s still racing and it’s still exciting,” said first-year Stevenson coach and St. Patrick graduate Joe Gibson, who succeeded Doug Lillydahl and previously coached at Vernon Hills, New Trier and Evanston.
“There’s more emphasis on the team aspect since this is such a relay-heavy invite,” he added. “And the class relays allow teams to showcase their youth.”
St. Charles North junior and North Carolina State commit Thomas McMillan showed up tapered in Lincolnshire Saturday. He’ll head down to Austin, Texas, later this week to compete in five events at Junior Nationals.
McMillan sped to first place in the 100 butterfly and took second in the 100 backstroke at last winter’s state meet. On Saturday he helped North Stars units take third in the 400 medley (3:46.82) and 350 back (3:23.22) relays as the lead-off leg for both.
SCN placed fifth (123 points) in the Gold flight.
“I had to do something,” McMillan said of his decision to try swimming at the age of 7. “Hated it at first. But I grew to enjoy the competition. Racing others is what I love to do.”
VH’s Plaksin digs churning hard, too. A two-time top-three medalist at state (2nd in the 100 free, 3rd in the 200 free) last season, he touched first in Saturday’s 50 free Junior Green (21.23) event and then won twice more — with times of 20.79 and 20.67 — in elimination 50-free tests. Teammate Maruthi Kavuri clocked a first-place 22.87 in the 50-free against Senior Green racers.
Stevenson topped Gold fields in the 400 medley (3:28.38) and 350 breaststroke (3:37.33) relays. Lee Kasper, Allan Zhu, Kyler Chou and Brendan Jones swam for the former, and Elvis Gavrilchik, Joshua Wang and Zhu hit the water for the latter.
Patriots freshman Brayden Cobb won the 50 free Frosh Green event (24.93) and collaborated with classmates Jason Yang, Eeshan Matada and Matt Nartov to claim the 200 medley (1:50.84) and 400 free (3:48.35) Frosh Green relay titles.
Victorious VH relay members included Plaksin, Chan, Kavuri, Jack Janzen, Ethan Lorman, Altai Arstan, Ike Dio, Logan Dye, Marco Jingco, Tyler Starke, Leo Schifrin, and Will Blackmer.
Cougars senior Marshall Hill took first place in the Varsity Green diving segment with a 357.5-point effort, bettering the runner-up’s total by more than 135 points.
Vernon Hills’ non-sartorial theme this winter is “Unbreakable.”
“We all know every individual has a weakness,” Pardun said. “But, with the backing of a team, along with every individual focusing on one goal, we’re unbreakable.”
Palatine’s Michael O’Hare silvered in the 50 free Junior Green race (24.84), and Fremd’s quartet of Marcus Witkowski, Andrew Wessberg, Finn Winegar and Alex Ivanov bronzed in the 400 medley relay Varsity Gold (3:38.89).
“Fun meet, because it’s a change of pace,” said first-year Fremd coach and Barrington graduate Tim Daniel, who, like Stevenson’s Gibson, has coached water polo for several seasons. “I look at it as an opportunity to experiment. We have some swimmers who are dialed in, but the best approach to take here is to not overthink.”
Libertyville’s best result was fourth place in the 350 fly Gold relay (3:29.27; Gabriel Papanos, Joshua Kallemeyn and Max Shores).
“It’s a starting point, the beginning of the season,” said Libertyville coach Greg Herman. “We’d been in the water for two weeks. An early meet like this one, you find out what you need to work on and go from there.”