A wave of fast times at Neuqua Valley
It all started when the cavemen in this area dived into lakes and rivers to try and swim fast to get away from the animals that saw them only as dinner.
OK. That's too far back. But what has been a constant for many years is that a Naperville/Aurora-area sectional is often the best sectional in the state with a truckload of qualifiers that extend their season another week at the state meet.
Saturday's sectional at Neuqua Valley was no exception.
A total of 83 entries qualified for the two-day state meet that begins Friday at New Trier High School in Winnetka. That number could go higher if divers at Neuqua, who did not win the event Saturday, are among the top 32 sectional scores of non-winning divers, thus earning at-large berths at state.
Neuqua won the team title with 238 points. Waubonsie Valley (219 points) and Naperville Central (204) rounded out the top three.
Connor Boyle won both the 100-yard freestyle and 200 freestyle. Teammate Jack Hiss was second to Boyle in the 200 freestyle and also qualified in the 500 freestyle.
The Wildcats also are sending all three relays, the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle.
"The relays are looking strong and we'll be looking to Hiss and Boyle as returning scorers," said Neuqua coach Chad Allen.
Also qualifying are Ethan Tuel, who won the diving, Jimmy Senese and Tanner Schrey in the 50 freestyle, Sathya Subramanian in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley, Patrick Jensen in the 100 freestyle along with Rohan Nagori and Matt Townsend in the 100 breaststroke.
There are multiple heats in each sectional event. Generally, the fastest heat, determined by seed times, usually has the state qualifiers, but others have reached from slower heats in past meets.
Saturday, though, saw an uptick in that with the talent level present.
Neuqua's Preston Waldusky qualified in the 200 IM coming out of the second-fastest heat. He knocked about five seconds off his seed time.
"Even if it's not the top heat, everyone is still racing fast," he said. "I put in a lot of work with Sathya (Subramanian). We train and do our IM sets together."
Waubonsie sophomore Elmer Wang won the 100 breaststroke out of the second-fastest heat.
"I just tried to be calm, keep it low level," he said. "Of course, it was great to win. But I knew I trained as hard as the others and I just wanted to go out and do what I wanted to do."
Weng also qualified in the 200 IM. Two other Warriors were two-time individual qualifiers, Aayush Deshpande in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly and Lucas Conrads in the 200 and 500 freestyles.
Other qualifiers for Waubonsie are Brian Daugherty in the 50 freestyle, Jake Darlinger in the 100 butterfly and Brian Knothe in the 100 breaststroke. Evan Villeneuve smashed his seed time in the 500 freestyle of 5 minutes, 1.61 seconds mark, reducing it to qualify at 4:42.43.
Naperville Central qualified all three relays and had double qualifiers in Matt King, Andrew Dai, Luke Klein-Collins and Sam Flessner. King made it in the 200 and 500 freestyles, Dai in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, Klein-Collins in the 50 and 100 freestyles and Flessner making it in the 500 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
Goncalo Wanzelle heads to New Trier in the 100 backstroke as does Ben Russo in the 100 breaststroke and Brad Sanford in the 50 freestyle.
Sophomore Owen Codo's seed time in the 100 butterfly put in the third fastest heat, but he knocked off almost three seconds Saturday to qualify in the event.
"I try not to think what is the best heat or the slowest. I just wanted to go out fast regardless of whether I made the time. I just wanted to finish the season strong," he said. "I'm super happy. I didn't expect it and once I knew it made me super proud."
Naperville North qualified all three relays. Grant Bochenski won the 100 backstroke. Owen Jacobs qualified in the 50 freestyle and Joey Yuian the 100 freestyle.
Metea Valley got through the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays along with Sam Kastan in the 50 freestyle and Jeddrick Gamilla in the 100 breastroke.
Nicholas Tommasone of Benet will swim at state in the 50 and 100 freestyles and the Redwings qualified their 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
Marmion finished seventh and got eight entries through to the state meet.
The 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays made it through. Nolan Fergus qualified in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly as did Henry Bliss.
Matthew Felber gets another chance at the 200 IM, as does Ty Spillane in the 100 breaststroke.
"Everybody did what they needed to do," said Cadets coach Bill Schalz. "We have a young squad and they swam really well and they cut three to four seconds in their 100s and that will help next year."