Saints sore, but they enjoy college format

Most races took just a little longer to finish on Saturday at St. Charles East.

There was a 1,000-yard freestyle, a 400 individual medley, a 200-yard race in each of the strokes where usually only freestyle gets that honor.

The reason for the extended lengths was the Saints annual College Events Meet, the yearly chance for swimmers to see how they fare at the distances they would swim in college.

"We hope everybody in our program swims in college," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "This gives them a chance to see what that's like and that's one reason why we do this."

The Saints finished third in their five-team meet on Saturday. Lyons Township outscored Mundelein 645.5-496.5 to claim the title.

But the goal for all five teams was to find how swimmers reacted when asked to swim a longer race than usual.

"We had some good swims," Cabel said. "We're coming off this long training period and some of the guys did very well. They all got to see what this format is about."

Saints junior Ken Tilges seemed very comfortable in the format, which the team sees only once a year. He was his team's only event winner when he took first in the 100 breaststroke. Tilges was also second in the 200 breaststroke and third in the 400 individual medley. Tilges also swim in the 400 medley relay, meaning he swam 800 yards where he might only swim 250-300 in a typical meet.

"I'm all right," Tilges said. "I'm a little sore. It's a tough meet but you've got to get out there and swim your hardest."

Tilges finished well, nearly moving from third to second in the final 50 yards of the 400 individual medley. Jacobs' Sean Kelly edged Tilges by .06.

"We all like this meet," Tilges said. "We all swim our hardest, which is nothing new for us. But we do like this meet a lot. I like this pool a lot; it's my favorite pool."

Tilges said he and those on his high school team who swim year-round see the college events format in club swimming. But that format is extended to everyone on the high school team once a year.

"They get to enter three events," Cabel said. "We had a lot of guys who looked good in their first and second swim. That third swim was where some of them struggled a bit."

Things revert to normally-formatted meets for the Saints this week, as they continue to prepare for the end of the season, which begins with conference meets in early February.

"For being in the middle of season and just getting done with our hard training period, I thought we swam great today," Tilges said. "I've seen nothing that's what we shouldn't be doing. We did all right today."

The Dundee Crown/Jacobs coop finished fourth in the meet as it begins to increase the intensity of its season. The team had its first dual meet this week and will continue preparations for the Feb. 22-23 state meet in Evanston.

"I thought we swam pretty well today," coop coach Rick Andresen said. "We had some good swims, and we found some things out about some of our swimmers that will change our lineup."

Sean Kelly was second in the 200 butterfly and the 400 individual medley.

"A lot of our guys have never seen the college events format," Andresen said. "We had some nice surprises today."