Barrington's O'Leary in an MSL class by himself
Colin O'Leary was a man alone Saturday.
O'Leary, a Barrington junior, was the only swimmer from his team — not to mention the Mid-Suburban League — to advance to Saturday's championship finals at the boys swimming and diving state meet held at Evanston Township High School.
If he was nervous about holding the mantle for his school and conference at one of the nation's top high school state meets, he didn't show it.
O'Leary, swimming in the consolation heat of the 100-yard butterfly, got off to a better start than his Friday preliminary swim and hung with heat leader Dylan Boyd of Lake Forest through the first lap plus, en route to a fifth-place finish in 50.90 seconds.
That was .07 better than O'Leary swam Friday, and good for 11th place overall.
Hinsdale Central's Franco Reyes, the defending champion in the event, won again in 47.50 seconds. DeKalb's Daniel Hein was second in 48.15.
“I think my start was better, still not 100 percent.” O'Leary said. “I did hold back a little bit but I think the actual racing went well. I was happy. My underwaters felt good, my exits felt good. I was happy with it.”
But really, what O'Leary achieved Saturday was exactly what he was shooting for all along this season.
“My goal this season in the fly was to make it to the B finals,' he said. “And I accomplished that, so I was happy.”
“I think today Colin was much more comfortable before the race,” said Barrington John Valentine. “On Friday he said physically he didn't feel too well and today he said he felt much better, he felt his legs were stronger.
“He got a much better start today. He improved his time slightly and improved his place overall by one.
“But more importantly, we're looking ahead toward next year. Every race we swam this weekend will help us next year.”
That's no idle claim.
The Broncos have plenty of firepower returning in 2016-17, many of whom showed just a flash of their capabilities at Evanston.
Start with O'Leary, who was a Saturday alternate in the 100 backstroke after finishing 13th Friday in 51.83 seconds.
He led off the 200 medley relay that finished 28th in 1:37.95, teaming with senior Colin Cross, junior Andrew Fish and senior Brandon Schaff.
O'Leary also anchored the 400 freestyle relay that took 36th in 3:17.23, joining forces with fellow juniors John Lagoni and Mitch Gavars, along with senior Jeremy Kleinjan.
Gavars took 17th on Friday in the 500 freestyle in 4:39.95, while Lagoni was 26th in the 100 freestyle in 47.77. Lagoni (21st, 1:44.17) and Gavars (24th, 1:44.85) were also top performers in the 200 freestyle.
Max Gersten was 44th in 100 breaststroke in 1:01.75.
And there's help coming.
Freshman Sam Burrell was a standout at the frosh-soph MSL meet, and eighth-grader Jack Hoppe will be joining the Broncos from the Barrington Swim Club.
So what does championship Saturday 2017 look like for Barrington?
“I think we're going to set individual goals but I think some of those goals, based upon what we saw this weekend, will include top-12 finishes in as many events as possible,” Valentine said. “Our goal moving into next year is to see how many people we can get into the top 12, and hopefully the top 6 as well.”
On Saturday, that group of juniors couldn't be more clear: Barrington will be well-represented next year on championship Saturday.
“We are positive that it's going to look better than this year,” Gavars said. “We had a troublesome Friday. We did not do as well as we had hoped to.
“But next year, we're going to come with a different outlook, a different viewpoint and a different training perspective. We're going to kill it next year, Friday and Saturday.”
“I think (next year) looks really good,” Gersten added. “We've got another year of training to go through, we'll be doing different things this summer, from a training perspective. Our medley relay is going to be really good next year and could get to that A final.”
Lyons earned the team state championship under coach Scott Walker, the school's first victory.
Lyons won the meet-ending 400 free relay in 3:04.71, and placed third in the other relays to finish with 146 points. Naperville Central (122) was third and defending champ Hinsdale Central (117) took third.
• Another MSL swimmer who competed Saturday was Elk Grove's Jack Falejczyk, in all four of the Athletes With Disabilities events.
His best finish was third place in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:30.56, which was a 5-second time drop. He also took fourth in the 50 freestyle in 32.62 seconds, and fourth in the 100 freestyle in a lifetime-best 1:09.33.
The sightless, gregarious sophomore was pleased with his efforts.
But he credited all the work that went into it, especially over the last week.
“This is basically the grand finale of the season,” he said. “We did two-hour workouts, we did a combination of taper and basically the coup de gras of all the workouts we did this season.”
His coach, Keith Kura, agrees that Falejczyk has what it takes to be a top-level AWD competitor over the next two years.
“We talked to him about weight training, producing more muscle, continuing to swim year round and practice and come every day like he has,” Kura said. “He's obviously at a disadvantage but what he does on a daily basis is amazing.”
Kura's assistants, Dave Toler and Jason Spjuth, helped Falejczyk in his races Saturday by tapping his head with a lengthy pole called a “tapper” as he neared the pool ends.
Maine West senior Anthony Alonzi completed his high school swimming career with a pair of championships, winning his AWD heats of both the 50 free (26.63) and 100 breaststroke (1:15.95). Alonzi also placed second in the 100 free (59.08).