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St. Charles East, North progressing toward stretch run

You couldn't swing a kickboard on-deck at St. Charles East's Norris Center swimming pool on Friday night without coming into contact with at least a handful of incredibly fast boys swimmers.

Some swam for the host Saints and others competed for visiting St. Charles North, teams that competed in a contest against different colored aquatic Ferraris in the latest renewal of the city's crosstown rivalry.

St. Charles North won a few more races but St. Charles East outpointed the North Stars 94-91 as both teams brought their busy winter break training to a close.

"We know when we set up our meet schedules that the North meet will always bring good competition," St. Charles East coach Adam Musial said. "Just like in any sport, we know it'll be competition. We were banking on getting some of our best swims today, coming out of our hard training and we expected the North Stars to come out blazing as well."

The holiday break is always marked by a "midseason preseason" as teams prepare for the final weeks before the February postseason. Tired limbs were not evident when swimmers got on the blocks, however.

"It was a roller coaster of a meet," Musial said. "We've been working really hard at coming together as a team. We have a very young team. Of our 45 kids, around 20 of them are new to high school swimming. So my three senior captains - Austin Cabel, Matthew Nagler and Garrett Prybell - made sure we were ready for the second half of the season."

One of the turning points in the dual meet was St. Charles East sophomore Calvin Windle's victory in the 100-yard butterfly. Windle later finished second in the 100 backstroke.

"Our coaches have been preaching how we need to get the times in-season so we can get them out of season," Windle said. "I really wanted to get up and show what I can go. My backstroke and fly have been good, but not what they need to be."

St. Charles North registered some blistering times, including a pool record 54.83 by William Myhre in the 100 breaststroke. The North Stars continue a very competitive weekend on Saturday at the tough Evanston Invitational.

"Right now, I'm trying to keep all the systems in check and keep it moving forward toward the end. Tonight, our second guy's got to understand he's got to get into third instead of fourth. But I'm really happy with where we're at. We came into the high school season in good shape and into winter training in good shape. We just need to stay focused on what our goals are," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said.

Freshman Alec Filipovic had a strong meet, winning the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke and leading off the North Stars victorious 200 medley relay.

"It's fun getting up to race against friends," Filipovic said. "This is my first time in this, but it's always fast. In the 100 back, I'm against my best friend (East's Windle) and it's a big race. I want to beat him, but it's really fun as well."

Filipovic enjoyed the opportunity to compete after two weeks of high-intensity training.

"You just get to get up and let it loose and go out and race and it's fun. The races were really good today and now we get to go and do it again (Saturday.) It feels like the season's going by way too fast," Filipovic said.

As always in recent years, East-North swim meets in St. Charles are fundraisers for the For Scout Foundation. This year's boys meet raised nearly $3,000 in a 50/50 drawing - with the winner donating their 50 percent back to the foundation. The foundation is named after St. Charles' Scout Cantrell, who loved music, animals and swimming, and who died, aged 8-years-old, in 2014 following a brief illness.

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