Libertyville has the development edge in dual with Warren
Due to all of the cheering and yelling that usually accompanies a high school swimming meet, Warren coach Chris Bertana had no problem with the fact he had lost his voice by the end of the evening.
It's was all well worth it, because even though the Blue Devils lost a 104-82 decision to visiting Libertyville in a North Suburban dual meet opener, Bertana was ecstatic with how his squad performed for it only being the second week of the season.
“We were really happy with the meet and I was very encouraged with what I saw tonight,” he said. “We're kind of re-inventing ourselves and it's going to take a little time. We're going to be doing a lot of mixing and matching as we go through the season.”
The youth movement seems to be in full effect, with the Devils roster consisting predominantly of underclassmen.
One of those is sophomore Josh Church, who Bertana mentioned was one of the top Warren swimmers here in the early going.
“He's our strongest swimmer right now,” the coach added. “He's only going to get better and better, and we're going to get better and better. We were always happy to race Libertyville. They're always strong. It's a good chance to see where we're at.”
Church won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.10 and finished third in the 100 butterfly (59.41). He was also a part of the second-place 200 medley relay, where he teamed with Brian Tabourot, Satya Arcot, and Nathan Metz to finish in 1:47.00. Church also swam anchor on the second-place 200-free relay team, joining Arcot, Metz, and Mitchell Ihrig in 1:36.83.
Meanwhile, Tabourot had a nice evening as well in winning the 100 backstroke (59.16) before collecting third place efforts in both the 200 IM (2:16.58) and 200 freestyle relay, where he joined Austin Edmondson, Taylor Vander-Jeugdt and Harry Quirke in posting a time of 1:36.83.
As for Libertyville, second-year coach Mike Cunningham has plenty to be optimistic about despite losing a few key swimmers to graduation.
Like Warren, the Cats are going through a little bit of a youth movement as well with only four seniors.
“We're definitely a younger group but we do have a solid core of guys at every level ready to rock and roll,” he said. “We just want to get better with every meet. As long as we're improving our strokes, the times and points will take care of themselves.”
Part of Libertyville's version of the youth movement is sophomore Sean Coughlin, who won the 500 freestyle (5:19.60) and also swan the opening leg of the first-place 200 freestyle relay (1:32.00), joining Nick Harrington, Noah Jamieson and Eric Turner. Coughlin also swam the opening leg in the first-place 400-freestyle relay, where he also teamed up with the aforementioned trio in 3:24.70.
“We're really excited about the season,” said Coughlin, who finished seventh in the 200 freestyle and sixth in the 500 freestyle at sectionals a year ago. “It feels really good to get back in there and race and try and work out the rust. Our seniors definitely provide leadership, and us underclassmen are just trying to learn from them and step up and get better.”
Jamieson was also victorious in the 200 free (1:51.73), while Jordan Mitchell won the 200 IM (2:14.18) for Libertyville. The Cats' Jacob Reichert took top honors in diving (212.35), while Eric Turner finished first in the 100 butterfly (55.22) and Billy Becker won the 100 freestyle in 54.99.
Arcot picked up a victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.56) for Warren, which will see Libertyville again a week from Saturday for the Lake County Invitational at Stevenson.