Filipovic's record-setting day helps St. Charles North defend DuKane title
Alek Filipovic entered the DuKane Conference meet untapered, on virtually no rest.
But hardly looked it.
Filipovic, a St. Charles North sophomore, broke a meet and pool record in the 100-yard butterfly at the DuKane Conference meet on Saturday at St. Charles North.
Filipovic finished in 49.25 seconds. For context, former St. Charles North star and current freshman at Iowa Will Myhre swam a 48.61 to win state last season.
It provides a glimpse of what's to come for Filipovic.
"Big things are coming," Filipovic said. "I'm just going to say big things are coming."
In the meantime, his team checked conference off its to-do list. The North Stars won their second consecutive DuKane Conference title with 330 team points. St. Charles East followed in second with 250 and Lake Park was third with 218.
"It takes the whole entire team," Filipovic said of repeating as team champs. "We killed it. Every single event, we just about got new pool records. Our (first place) JV really killed it. I'm really proud of them about that. They're just one of the reasons why we were able to win this meet."
Filipovic also powered his way to a win in the 200-yard individual medley, posting a 1:52.71 and breaking his own personal record in the process.
The North Stars walked away with first-place finishes in 21 of 23 events, including Friday's diving portion of the meet. St. Charles East won the other two events.
St. Charles North's Ricky Williams won the 200 freestyle in a meet record 1:42.56, and also won the 500 free varsity division (4:42.22). Henry Gawlik won both the 500 free open division (5:15.69) and the 100-yard backstroke open division (1:01.44).
St. Charles East senior Joey Scimeca won his second consecutive diving championship (503.80 total score), while junior Calvin Windle prevailed as the 100-yard backstroke champion with a 51.47 finish.
"It definitely feels good (winning conference back-to-back)," Scimeca said. "Gotta keep my eyes open for sectionals."
Scimeca just returned a few weeks ago for the Saints' Senior Night, after coming down with mononucleosis a few days before Christmas.
"It's been an uphill battle just trying to get leg strength back," Scimeca said. "Definitely an uphill battle come conference. Just really fighting the sickness off ... in practice, just staying positive. I think those are the main things I focused on."
Scimeca made sure to highlight the performance of St. Charles North's Ben Watanapongse, who finished third in dive.
"The improvement that he made from last year to this year has been unbelievable," Scimeca said. "He's definitely been a big motivator. Seeing him do well motivates me to do well."
This season, Windle is more focused on events he could swim at state, including the 100 backstroke.
"I got to swim the 100 fly (today, placing third), I swam the (100) relay. Just kind of seeing what works and what I'm going to go into (for) our championship season ... I feel like I've had a lot of success this season."
For the Wheaton North co-op, Mitchell Hogan placed second in the 50-yard free (21.59) and fourth in the 100 yard free (49.30). Lake Park's Ben Kimmel placed second in the 100 fly (50.50) and 100 backstroke (51.50).