Conant closes out Palatine in a fight to the finish

You want close races? There were all kind of 'em at Palatine on Friday night.

Visiting Conant prevailed in more than its share of the tight finishes, which turned out to be the key - especially in the relays.

The Cougars delivered a 1-2 finish in the medley relay, and with standout Ryan Chiero anchoring both the 200 and 400 free relays, Conant won by the slimmest of margins - by 11 one-hundredths of a second in the 200, and by 18 one-hundredths in the 400.

All of which helped Conant top Palatine 107-79 and maintain top divisional position in pursuit of a Mid-Suburban West title. The Cougars have meets against Hoffman Estates and Fremd remaining, but since the Vikings already have one dual loss, Conant is all but assured of at least sharing the division crown.

Not that Conant coach Brian Drenth's is all that concerned about wins and losses right now. Coming out of the grueling holiday training regimen, he knows his swimmers are still fatigued - but also, he learned, very ready to compete.

"After the two weeks these guys put in over break, they know it's made them better," Drenth said. "They come to me, and it's like, 'please, please, please let me race - I want to see what I can do.'

"They got their chance tonight, and it turned out pretty well."

Among the key individual efforts for Conant were wins from Victor Lim in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:15.35), from Matt Ebert in the 100 fly (1:03.93) and a pair of victories by Will Landgren (200 free, 100 free). Chiero also won both the shortest race (the 50) and the longest (the 500).

For Palatine, Brad Ferris came up with wins in the 200 IM and 100 back, and in diving Steve Repking scored 184.85 to edge Conant's John Maevski (183.25).

Drenth was impressed by the quality of Palatine's performance, but Pirates coach Ed Richardson has been expecting these kind of results.

"I think there are probably some other people surprised by what we're doing," he said, "but really, I had an idea of what these guys were capable of. I think the key is that now they're starting to really see it, too."

Though Palatine's medley relay finished third, it improved upon its best 200-meter time by some four seconds. Another breakthrough effort came from John Giuliano in the 100 fly (1:04.28).

"We had some really terrific swims," Richardson said. "Full credit to Conant, but the meet was close enough, on another day, it might have ended differently. We just want to learn from every race, every meet. I feel like we're doing that."

The Pirates will get consecutive tests against the MSL West's top teams in the final two weeks of league duals - next week they host Fremd before finishing up against Barrington.

Fremd d. Schaumburg: Fremd had a pair of double individual winners in Dustin Anderson (200 free, 100 back) and Dennis Kostidis (200 IM, 100 fly) as the host Vikings produced a 136-50 victory against Schaumburg.

Buffalo Grove d. Meadows: Brad Lotzer won the 100 free in 51.85 and the 200 free in 1:59.10 as the host Bison topped the Mustangs 121-62. Ian Rodriguez was also a double winner, in the 50 free (23.24) and the 100 back (55.48); other wins for the Bison came from Matt O'Rourke (200 IM), Phil Irzyk (100 breaststroke) and Matt Schulstad (100 fly). Kevin Fitzsimons picked up a win for Rolling Meadows in the 500 free.

Highland Park d. Maine West: Brian Wasicak wn the 200 free in 1:57.07 and teammate Joe Heinz placed second in the same race, but the Warriors couldn't keep pace with Highland Park, which won 114-71.