Benet, Viator battle midseason blues with different lineups

It's the time of the boys swimming season when the athletes start to wonder if there's any light at the end of the tunnel.

With that mood in mind, the coaches in Tuesday's meet between visiting Benet (Mike Rigali) and St. Viator (Alfonso Lopez) changed up their lineups a bit.

Benet showed better depth throughout the meet and won 63-29, but gains were made by both squads.

For the Redwings, the most notable performances came from freshman Peter Krzywosz, who won the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.53) and finished the 200 free in 2:01.78 as an exhibition effort that would have placed him second behind teammate Connor Binnig (1:59.42).

"We kind of treated this meet like we'd swim guys in half their normal events, and then mix it up in the other half," said Rigali. "We've got some tired kids and a meet like this helps break up the routine."

Rigali remains hopeful that standouts like Binnig and junior Jacob Zernhelt - along with perhaps a relay or two - can qualify for the state meet in just over a month weeks. Until then, he's counting on his leaders to set the tone.

"Not just in meets, but definitely in practice, Jacob is a leader for us," Rigali said.

Other individual winners for the Redwings were Dave Caseria (50 free), Paul Pallardy (100 free), Brandon Harvey (500 free) and Bryan Corrigan (100 breaststroke).

St. Viator is also fighting the mid-season blues, and on this night the Lions were without perhaps their top swimmer, Andy Bremm. Lopez still found plenty to like in Tuesday's meet.

"Time-wise, we're doing well," said Lopez. "We're dropping time consistently - but we're a very young team, so we kind of expect that."

Junior Eric Primdahl is one of the Lions' more experienced competitors, and he led the way. Primdahl won the 200 IM (2:13.69) and the 100 fly (58.68) in season-best times and had the fastest split on the Lions' 400 free relay.

Swimming the IM and butterfly is a rarity for Primdahl because they're so close together in the meet lineup.

"That was one of the main changes we made in the lineup (due to Bremm's absence)," Lopez said. "He handled it well. He died a little bit in the fly, but I'm chalking that up to having raced in the IM just a little bit before that."

Next up for both teams are invitationals Saturday. Benet is in action at Downers Grove North and St. Viator will be at Hersey's meet.