Hinsdale Central beats Naperville Central in final race
With informed fans and competitors well aware of what was at stake, Saturday's James Wheelock College Events Invitational at Hinsdale South appropriately came down to the meet's final event.
When Hinsdale Central's quartet of Donovan Lahmann, Cullen Cochlan, Conor Dunne and Michael Bennington raced off with a first-place time of 7:22.66 in the 800-yard free relay, the Red Devils held off runner-up Naperville Central, which was second in the event and then second in the team standings. That final event lifted Hinsdale Central, third in the state last season, to a 263 to 262.5 victory over the Redhawks, who had led the meet by 10.5 points with three events left.
While the victory in that last relay made the difference, the Red Devils won the meet by piling up points with their depth at the 11-team event.
"The team did incredibly. We had a couple underrated swimmers that pulled out some swims that they weren't supposed to," said Cochlan, who also swam on the Red Devils' winning 400 medley relay and their second-place 200 free relay. "We won by half a point or one point, so obviously we needed that. We had some incredible swims by some of our less known swimmers. The depth definitely contributed to the win today incredibly."
Assistant coach David Fix, who guided the team while coach Bob Barber was running a lower-level swim meet at Hinsdale Central, also tipped his cap to the Red Devils' depth. He also believes Naperville Central's strong showing helped push his swimmers.
"Because it was so close is what brought the effort so high," Fix said. "As the meet progressed we realized it was going to be a battle. Every swim was important. We knew that going in and that is I think what helped us … we had some parents that were giving me some (team score) updates so we knew what was going on.
"We had to win the relay … they knew what their role was. But we won the meet because of our second swims. We knew our stars were going to get theirs."
Donovan Lahmann won the 500 free for Hinsdale Central, but teammate Dunne added points for taking third - Patrick White of the Wheaton co-op was second in the race. The Red Devils' winning medley relay team consisted of Cochlan, Trystan Lundgren, Nolan Lahmann and Donovan Lahmann.
Bennington won the 400 IM with a time of 4:21.80, while Naperville Central's Andrew Dai was second in 4:22.08. Cochlan also won the 50 free and teammate Lundgren claimed the 200 breaststroke as Hinsdale Central captured just enough points to defeat the Redhawks.
Speaking of the Redhawks, it was a big day for Sam Flessner, who won the 1000 free in 10:13.56, easily defeating runner-up Dan Emary of Barrington. Flessner also swam on a third-place 400 medley relay and placed third in the 200 breaststroke, before closing out the meet in that decisive 800 free relay, where he joined Luke Klein-Collins, Matt King and Dai to record a second-place time of 7:29.40.
"I thought we did really well," Flessner said. "We've been working really hard over winter break, and I thought our results showed that we've been working really hard in the pool. We did have a lot of good showings. It was really nice just having a bunch of good teammates to push each other. It was a solid meet all the way around."
Barrington took third in the team standings at 203 points and freshman Griffin O'Leary continues to grow into a key contributor for a team featuring a strong returning cast. The Broncos' newcomer was part of a winning 200 free relay squad, a runner-up 400 medley relay, and took first individually in both the 200 back and the 200 fly.
"I think I swam pretty well," said O'Leary, who recorded a 1:55.22 to hold off Lake Park's Ben Kimmel in the 200 back. "I went really close to my best times of the season.
"We have some fast people here. We have really good senior role models and a lot of veterans that have been to state. It's real exciting to be with them at the end of the season."