Fremd engineers dramatic ending to take title

A dramatic finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay helped Fremd to the team championship in Wednesday's Sea Lion Classic hosted by St. Viator.

The Vikings need to beat Loyola Academy in the final event to win the meet, and they got precisely what they needed. Fremd's Sean Gonzalez, Varun Shivakumar, Dustin Anderson and Sam Childs finished in 3:20.26 to edge Loyola's second-place effort of 3:22.19, and the Vikes paddled away with a 355-350 victory over the Ramblers.

Third place went to St. Ignatius (331), followed by Jacobs/D-C co-op (256), Prospect (242), St. Viator (177), Wheeling (142) and Notre Dame (80).

Key to Fremd's victory were Shivakumar and Childs, who both won two individual races.

Shivakumar won the 200 IM in 2:01.44 and in the 100 backstroke beat his nearest competitor by more than 3 seconds with a time of 54.29.

Childs was tops in the 200 free (1:49.78) and the 100 free (50.74), and the Vikings also got a 1-2 finish in the 500 free from Jeff Freund and Dustin Anderson.

Prospect's top individual results came from Charlie Mau, who placed third in the 100 fly (55.47) and fourth in the 200 IM (2:08.99). He joined Chris Hoffman, Edward Martin and Joe Lakner on the Knights' third-place 400 free relay.

Jacobs/D-C was led by Nick Pankau, who placed third in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.49) and seventh in the 200 IM (2:17.30), and Sean Kelly, who took second in the 100 back (57.33) and fifth in the 100 fly (57.34).

First-year St. Viator coach Alfonso Lopez, a Prospect grad, was pleased with how his team competed in its home debut. With high-caliber teams like Fremd, St. Ignatius and Loyola in attendance, it was rewarding enough just to see his young team compete well.

"It was a big, big step forward for us," said Lopez. "I really have some lofty expectations for these guys, and I can see that they're starting to believe in themselves."

Lopez got strong efforts from sophomore Chris Miklius in the 200 free (2:11.19) and freshman Ryan Boyer in the 100 free (56.52). The Lions' best result might have been in the 100 breaststroke, where Andy Brehm's 1:07.60 was about four seconds better than his performance in the same meet last season, and about two seconds better than Brehm's previous lifetime best.

"This meet was really good for our sense of self-confidence," said Lopez. "Our guys got to see some great swimmers, and we had some really good swims ourselves."