Conant successfully battles fatigue, Palatine
Conant's always ready for a conference meet. And with the tradition it's had the last several years against Palatine, both teams came in fired up Friday.
Both teams delivered some great swims, but the Cougars showed they had some real depth as they beat the host Pirates 108-78 in a Mid-Suburban West boys swimming contest.
"It was a strong meet," said Conant coach Brian Drenth. "We've been focusing on swimming tired this year. They had some real good swims and some nice finishes. Good competition is (important) this time of the season."
The Cougars looked deepest in the 200-meter IM where Chris Emery swam a 2:26.27 to lead a 1-2-3 finish with Victor Lim and Yukinobu Morita.
"We try to get three guys in the top four," Drenth said. "You do that, you're going to win the meet."
Emery had solid day overall with a 1:04.74 win in the backstroke in another Conant top-two finish.
"Everybody knew coming in that we had to go against a lot of quick guys," Emery said. "We were looking to just be consistent, get top finishes and hopefully pull through. A lot of guys showed what they had."
Emery also swam on the bottom two relays -- both wins for Conant. Will Landgren, Morita, Michael McGuire and Emery closed out the meet with a 3:54.80 in the 400 free relay.
"We worked great together," Emery said. "Everyone was working as a team. In our conference we know we have to go out there and do it big -- show them what we've got."
Other firsts for Conant included Landgren in the 200 free (2:08.60), Morita in the 400 (4:50.40) and Lim in the breaststroke (1:17.15).
Cougars diver Nick Rizza performed to 177.20 points and another first.
In one of the closest races of the night, Landgren was touched out by Palatine's Adam Heckelsmiller 25.40-25.79 in the 50 free.
Heckelsmiller didn't stop there. His 56.63 was good for another win in the 100 free.
The Pirates also kicked off the meet with a 2:03.92 win in the medley relay thanks to Brad Ferris, David Heckelsmiller, Dylan Weissmann and Sebastian Dorszewski.
Despite the strong races, Palatine coach Katie Kupka is hoping her team is not discouraged by the loss.
"I've been telling the guys that we're going to be a work in progress," said Palatine coach Katie Kupka. "We've got the youngest team I've had since I've been here. We have a lot of learning to do."
Ferris added a 1:10.38 win in the backstroke with Dorszewski finishing in 1:10.78 for a close second.
"They have to be patient and understand we're going to be a very different team in the middle and end of February than we are right now," Kupka said. "Hopefully they'll trust that the coaches know what we're doing and we'll get them to where they need to be."
• Dustin Anderson won the 200-meter IM (2:24.85) and 100 backstroke (1:07.65) to lead Fremd to a 136-50 win over Schaumburg.
• Charlie Mau and Timothy O'Grady were both two-plus event winners for Prospect in the Knights 127-53 win over Elk Grove.
Bart Pienkowski, Damian Zabielski, Scott Kemp and Josh Nishida swam a 1:39.95 win the 200-yard free relay for the Grenadiers.
• Matt Block won the 200- (2:00.94) and 500- (5:30.11) yard freestyle for Buffalo Grove in a 116-69 win over Rolling Meadows. Jeff Grossich added wins in the 50 free (23.85) and 100 back (1:01.92) for the Bison.
• Brian Marko won the 200 (1:53.46) and 100 (52.26) freestyles for Barrington in a 125-57 win over Hoffman Estates. Pat Mason won the 500 in 5:13.87 for the Hawks.