Wimmer's quite a swimmer; Libertyville edges Fremd

On senior night at Fremd, a visiting senior stole the show.

Libertyville's Stevie Wimmer, an accomplished club swimmer who opted to join the high school team for his final year of school, won two individual races and anchored both of the Wildcats' freestyle relays with superb efforts.

Every swim of his turned out to be crucial toward the outcome as Libertyville edged Fremd 95-91.

"He's the most talented kid I've ever seen, at this stage of his development," said Libertyville coach Kevin Zakrzewski of the Kentucky-bound freestyle standout. "It's a great feeling for our team to see him up there anchoring our relays. If there's anyone within 25 yards, Stevie's going to try and go get 'em."

Wimmer won the 200-meter freestyle in 2:00.41 and the 100 in 53.41, edging two of Fremd's top competitors, juniors Jeff Freund (2:03.50) and Dustin Anderson (54.85). His best race might have been the 400 relay, on which he split 52.25.

Another key for Libertyville was junior Benjamin Snader, who delivered victories in the 100 fly (1:03.44) and the 100 breaststroke (1:15.22), and was able to recover quickly enough after the breaststroke to provide a key effort on the third leg of the 400 relay to set up Wimmer's big finish.

It all added up to bad news for Fremd, which despite some fine swims suffered another close loss in a dual.

"I'd say about the top third of our guys understand what needs to be done," said Fremd coach Nicole LaBeau. "With the rest of our team, it's still kind of a work in progress. It's not good enough to drop a tenth of a second and just feel good about that. We can't finish 1-5-6 in races as often as we have been. We have to want it more."

That wasn't a problem in diving, where seniors Brandon Trostrud and Mike Kowalenko helped out with a 1-3 finish. Trostrud (202.05) edged Libertyville's Teddy Kelley (185.60), and Kowalenko came in at 176.80.

"We're a little disappointed about losing the meet," said Kowalenko, "but at the same time we're excited about some of our performances. I thought everybody put everything they had into their races."

Senior captain Aaron Stahnke certainly helped out the Vikings by picking up a third-place finish in the 200 free (2:21.20). And seniors Sean Gonzalez and Tony Rublaitis had legs on Fremd's winning 200 medley relay with Anderson and sophomore James Tokuda.

Freund easily won the 400 free (4:22.68), ditto for Anderson in the 50 (24.96) and freshman Dennis Kostidis won the 100 back (1:07.91).

But Fremd was left unsatisfied heading into its final Mid-Suburban League dual of the season on Friday at Conant.

"The biggest thing," said LaBeau, "is that our younger guys show how they're capable of competing."