Neuqua Valley wins tight meet at Metea

Metea Valley will host an IHSA boys swimming sectional meet on Feb. 19.

So Saturday's Mustang Invite was a dress rehearsal of sorts for several DuPage County schools, including Neuqua Valley.

Dress rehearsals aren't usually supposed to have this much drama.

The Wildcats won the meet with 399 points, just one ahead of Plainfield. Waubonsie Valley was third with 339, and Naperville North (295) and Metea Valley (290) rounded out the top five.

Neuqua Valley won in part on the strength of its meet-capping 400-yard freestyle relay, which took second in 3:17.47. That group consisted of Aiden Dunn, Ryan Doerrer, Steffan Anderson and Dima Kondrashev. Plainfield took fourth in that event with 3:20.68, while Metea Valley won it in 3:13.48.

But that wasn't the only reason the Wildcats seized the title. Consider Dunn, a senior, and sophomore Alex Parkinson's 1-2 finish, respectively, in the 500 freestyle. Dunn (4:46.95) established his lead at 150 yards, and at 200, Parkinson (4:47.67) was right behind him, and nearly caught him in the latter stages of the race.

"We both train together in the same lane every single day, so it was really how can we put what we put into practice into the meet?" Dunn said, then gestured to Parkinson, "I know he had a goal he wanted to achieve, and so I kind of wanted to go out there with him and see what he could do and try to push him a little bit."

Is that a big advantage?

Said Parkinson: "It helps a lot. He's very good pace man, and he's very fast."

Also helping Neuqua Valley's cause was its divers, Nathan Malinowski (326.70) and Thomas Kiefer (301.10), who also went 1-2, respectively.

"Obviously it's nice to swim in the pool your sectional is at," coach Chad Allen said. "Most of our guys have been here enough, so it's not anything new to us, so that part of it is not bad. Plainfield is tough. Metea has a really good 400 free relay. Sectionals will be fun."

Metea Valley indeed does have a solid 400 freestyle relay, consisting of Henri Marchand, George Wang, Tyler Leslie and Jaeddan Gamilla, They had to battle to wrest the lead away from Plainfield, but did so about halfway through the race.

But like the Wildcats, the host Mustangs had plenty of other top-notch performances to rely upon in the team standings. Leslie won the 200 freestyle in 1:45.37, while Gamilla did the same in the 200 individual medley (1:53.11) and the 100 breaststroke (57.38). Wang conquered the 50 freestyle in 22.14.

"I'm doing the things I've always been doing," Gamilla said. "I've been swimming those events all season, not much has changed, maybe a little tweaking. It's moreso racing against myself."

Waubonsie Valley was quietly powerful throughout the meet and was led by Arnav Deshpande, who won the 100 backstroke in 52.57, and led off the runner-up 200 medley relay (1:38.67) that opened the meet. He also anchored the third-place finishing 400 freestyle relay with teammates Sam Lohman, Nathaniel Jefferson and Keian Lam.

"This week we hit it pretty hard with weights and yardage, because we want to bring it up at the end of the season," Deshpande said. "I think we performed really well. All we want to do is focus on ourselves. In a couple of weeks we're going to show everyone what we can truly do."

Like their DuPage Valley Conference counterparts, Naperville North got big swims from a strong cast led by Jonathan Wang, who took third in the 100 backstroke (53.76) and fourth in the 50 freestyle (22.42). He also anchored the Huskies' 200 freestyle relay, which finished fifth (1:31.84), joined by Griffin Schultz, Ryan Liberio and Alvin Ng.

"I've seen Arnav (Deshpande) and what he does, he's always at least halfway under the water, which is a huge advantage," Wang said. "So I worked on that. That really helped me."

Glenbard West proved its mettle by finishing eighth with 172.50, behind Ryan Heller, who was fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:48.01). Joe Green did likewise in the 100 butterfly (54.06).

Benet, which possesses a small team, played with the big kids just fine. The Redwings were led by Jack Larson, who took third in the 50 freestyle (22.25) and fourth in the 100 freestyle (48.70). He also anchored the 200 freestyle relay, sixth in 1:31.88.

The 50 freestyle isn't an easy event, and was made tougher due to a wait to address a timing issue in another lane.

"They were taking a really long time to start things, and I was really cold back there, I'm not going to lie," Larson said. "I've been preparing for this race all week, all year, and it's my favorite thing to swim."