Boys swimming and diving: Neuqua Valley's Boyle goes to the head of the class
The junior class in Illinois boys swimming and diving is absolutely loaded, but the list might very well start with Neuqua Valley's Connor Boyle.
Boyle won state championships in both of his individual events at the IHSA meet Saturday at Evanston. He easily prevailed in the 50-yard freestyle in 20.04 seconds, then doubled his pleasure in the 100 freestyle in 43.82 seconds.
"There's no feeling like it," said Boyle, who also raced a leadoff on Neuqua Valley's 200 freestyle relay team, which won the second final in 1:24.27 for a seventh-place finish. "I can't explain it, honestly. I'm just happy overall with the result personally. It's an endurance meet."
After dominating Friday's preliminaries, how did he prepare himself for Saturday's finals?
"Last night I was more kind of trying to relax myself," he said. "Because I knew, judging based off of prelims, I knew I would be in a pretty good spot for finals."
His coach, Chad Allen, is already comparing him to Ryan Held from Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, a multiple state record holder who's an Olympian and one of the fastest swimmers on the planet right now.
"He's something else," Allen said of Boyle. "He keeps getting faster. He's got a perfect stroke and he moves a ton of water all the way through. He's strong. His technique is wonderful. He has great balance, a lot of power. I've never seen somebody move that much water for somebody that size. It's unbelievable."
Boyle was primarily responsible for his team's ninth-place finish with 46 points.
Waubonsie Valley brought just four swimmers to Saturday's championships but still managed to cop fifth place with 85 points, the most from DuPage County schools. The Warriors were paced by another junior, Lucas Conrads, who put in yeoman's work Saturday.
Conrads raced the anchor on the 200 medley relay that took sixth in 1:33.69, and then leadoff on the 400 freestyle relay, which also finished sixth in 3:08.26. But that was just the beginning. He finished fifth in the 500 freestyle and 10th in the 200 freestyle.
Senior Aayush Deshpande was solid once again, with a runner-up finish in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 butterfly. He also raced legs on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
Adding to the fun was yet another junior, Brian Knothe, fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
That's what's called a team effort.
"I definitely think that being together and having such good swimmers with the four, it doesn't matter how many people we have, we know how to handle it," Conrads said.
Added Waubonsie Valley coach Christopher Hagenbaumer: "A lot of other teams on the deck have a whole lot of kids and we finished fifth with four kids. It's just a tribute to the hard work they've done the entire season."
Consider another junior - Naperville North's Grant Bochenski. He led the Huskies to a 12th-place finish with 33 points by taking third in the 100 freestyle in 44.78 - less than a second behind Boyle - and seventh in the 100 backstroke. For good measure he raced the leadoff on the 11th-place 200 medley relay, and a leg on the eighth-place 200 freestyle relay.
The battle between Bochenski and Boyle in the 100 freestyle was epic and should be a harbinger of even bigger things next season.
"I've known Connor for awhile," Bochenski said. "When we talk before races, we're always seeing what times you can go. It's really fun. It's like we're friends and we can just push each other and it's not stressful."
Ben Kimmel from Lake Park, an IUPUI recruit, scored a fifth-place finish in the 100 butterfly and the ninth-place position in the 100 backstroke. He looked a little downcast afterward, but not because of his performance.
"I'm going to miss my coach and my team. And coach Dan (Witteveen), he's been there for me all the time and supported me, and my teammates, we supported each other all year," Kimmel said.
Another successful senior was Naperville Central's Andrew Dai, who won the first heat in the 100 butterfly and finished seventh overall in 49.45 seconds.
"I felt a little nervous yesterday night, because I didn't perform as well as I'd like to, so I wanted to sort of redeem myself and get out there and do what I could for my team," Dai said.
Calvin Groenewold is Timothy Christian's only swimmer and he's a senior, too. He finished 11th in the 100 breaststroke in 58.41 seconds. What's he going to miss about high school swimming?
"Just being here and having fun," he said. "That was my goal going in. Just enjoy it. That's all that matter to me, cheering my friends on and watching them swim fast."
Want one final junior? Try Downers Grove South's Matthew Leinart, who set a pool record in the athletes with disabilities 200 freestyle with a time of 2:10.57.
If that wasn't enough, he came back later and set a state record in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.60, more than 40 seconds faster than the previous mark.
"I came into the meet and I felt ready, but there is always that part of you, Oh, what do I need to do here or there, what am I not doing?" he said.