Naperville Central places second at state
Naperville Central’s Jeff Depew knew that, as a senior, he had to “leave it all in the pool” at this weekend’s state swimming meet at New Trier.
Did he ever.
Depew led the Redhawks to a second-place finish at state Saturday by finishing second in two events, starting a winning relay and anchoring a relay team that finished fifth.
New Trier won the state championship with 217 points, and the defending-state champion Redhawks scored 163, their highest point total at a state meet.
“I couldn’t be happier than I am helping this team win a trophy my senior year,” said Depew, who finished second in the 200-yard individual medley and second to teammate Sean Lehane in the 100 backstroke. “We lost everyone from two championship relays and we still finished second in state. We weren’t supposed to do anything this year and we had a mindset all season to prove everybody wrong.”
“All year we’ve been getting the time drops we wanted,” said the Redhawks’ Nate Weeks, who finished fifth in the 200 IM and sixth in the 100 butterfly. “We had a great meet this weekend.”
In Friday’s preliminary the Redhawks’ 200 medley relay team of Depew, Steven van Deventer, Weeks and Pat May set a state record in 1:31.68. Saturday they were slightly off that pace, but their 1:31.95 was good enough to beat New Trier to the finish line.
The Redhawks also finished second in the 200 freestyle relay and fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.
May was fourth in the 100 freestyle, and van Deventer finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke to give the Redhawks major points in the finals.
“We had a great meet,” said Naperville Central coach Mike Adams. “New Trier was a little better and we have to take our hats off to them. We have a solid team of hard workers and we accomplished a great deal this season.”
Three other DuPage County teams finished in the top 10, with Neuqua Valley finishing eighth with 48 points, Naperville North ninth with 44 points and Hinsdale Central 10th with 40 points.
Red Devils junior Danny Thomson was another hero at the state meet, winning a pair of championships.
Thomson won the 200 freestyle and then broke the state record by swimming a 4:21.04 in the 500 freestyle, taking that title for the second straight year.
“It’s a great feeling to win at this meet,” Thomson said. “There’s really no other meet like it. It was really motivational to hear the crowd and the people from other teams cheering for me.”
“I looked around and saw everyone pulling for him,” said Hinsdale Central coach Corky King. “He creates that aura by being nice to people. He’s talented and he’s a nice kid.”
The final round in the Kevin Cordes of Neuqua Valley vs. Matt Elliott of Peoria Richwoods in the 100 breaststroke went to Elliott 53.80 (a state record) to 54.16.
It was Elliott’s seventh individual state championship in eight tries, including the 200 IM title Saturday. His only finals loss was to Cordes, who bested him for the breaststroke championship two years ago. Cordes also finished sixth in the 50 freestyle.
Neuqua Valley’s 200 medley relay team finished third.
Wheaton co-op senior George Doran was second in the diving competition, moving up from third place after Friday’s meet.
“Any time you can finish second at state, you have to be happy,” Doran said. “This is definitely a good way to go out with all my teammates in the stands supporting me.”
Doran’s teammate Collin Hogan was fifth in the 500 freestyle.
Mike Reed of Downers Grove North and Damon Zito of Willowbrook finished second and third in the 100 freestyle. Reed was also fifth in the 50 free.
Naperville North had a pair of top-six finalists. Kevin Butz was sixth in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 500 freestyle, and Nick Bessler finished sixth in the 200 IM.