St. Charles East runs away with college events meet
It's been a weird week at St. Charles East, and the boys swim team has been affected just like every other academic or athletic group at the school. The Saints missed a couple of days of practice due to the widespread virus that struck the student body and faculty, then competed Saturday in a smaller than usual College Events meet at the Norris Center after Highland Park, citing the illness, opted to not attend the meet.
That left the Saints with the District 300 co-op and Huntley as opposition, a pair of young teams in competition with one of the state's best. As a result, the team portion of the meet wasn't close, with St. Charles East winning with 748 points compared to the D-300 co-op's 355 score and Huntley's 258 tally. The meet was still important for all three teams, which had a series of individual and team goals in mind as they hit the water.
St. Charles East made up for lost time by practicing on Friday and then Saturday prior to the meet. The College Events format features races that are twice the length of high school events, in addition to the high school events, so athletes are stretched competitively more than usual. Coming off a hard morning practice did affect the Saints, despite their ultimate team score.
"I love the college meet format because of the double distances, but you'd like them to be kind of fresh and have some energy to do it," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "Between the sickness and our intent to catch up, we were a little flat. Some people survived it really well. We had some good swims and some fair swims, but overall, it was a good day."
The Saints won 14 of the meet's 15 events, and often swept the top three places in the events as well. Even in the two relay events, St. Charles East's teams finished first and second. There was still intense competition to win the events.
"I thought we raced each other really well, pushing each other," St. Charles East's Kyle Lewarchick said. "It was cool seeing who got their hand on the wall first today. It doesn't mean who will be the fastest at the end of the year, but it was good seeing it today."
Lewarchick won the 400-yard IM and was second to teammate Christian Alvarado in the 200 butterfly.
"Every time I swim, I want to win," Lewarchick said. "I know the 200 fly was a competitive race for me as well as Christian Alvarado and John Cranfill. I didn't get my hand to the wall first that time, but I did for the 400 IM, and that was a good thing."
There were some surprises too, especially in the 500 freestyle, where the Saints' Tanner Schisler beat teammate Owen Mruk by a half-second.
"That's a senior who won that and that was neat, with all our guys cheering for the senior," Cabel said. "The freshman (Mruk) came back on him, but that race was neat."
Only six weeks remain in the season, and the Saints will continue to train hard for some time to come. But the end gets ever nearer, and Cabel is aware of the progression to the Feb. 24-25 IHSA state meet at New Trier.
"We definitely have the aerobic down and we've been working on the anaerobic, starting to spring really hard. I think they've got one more breakthrough they need to get through and then we'll be ready for sectional and state," Cabel said.
St. Charles East's other event winners included Austin Cabel in the 1,000 freestyle, Nick Boryk in the 200 freestyle and the 200 backstroke, Sean Yetter in the 100 breaststroke, Harrison Hollman in the 50 freestyle, Matt Nagler in the 100 freestyle, Garrett Prybel in the 200 breaststroke, Matt Ortlund in the 100 butterfly and Joseph Scimeca in the diving competition.
The lone event winner from another team was District 300 co-op sophomore Harold Ogaban in the 100 backstroke, where he defeated teammate Elijah Stuart to win.
"We trained really hard over the winter break and I wanted to see how we'd hold on, and some of it was really pleasing. I was really impressed with some of the swims we had today," D-300 co-op coach Rick Andresen said.
Andresen said 22 of his 30 swimmers this season are freshmen or sophomores and there is only one senior on the squad.
"We're not the St. Charles caliber, but we're getting better and that's all you can ask," Andresen said. "We're very young, but there is a group there to work with who are doing really well."
Alec Orndahl, for example, swam a personal best in the 100 butterfly and finished fourth, Andresen said, marking a trend toward faster times throughout his team's lineup.
"That's good because I was able to practice with them in the morning and in the afternoon yesterday because of parent-teacher conference and them not having school. They're a little fatigued, but you're supposed to be fatigued at this time of the year," Andresen said.
Huntley's team is similarly youthful and Brenda Czarnecki's squad gained valuable experience at the College Events meet. The Red Raiders have 12 freshmen on their roster and no seniors this season.
"We had probably 95 percent best times today," Czarnecki said. "They're working hard in practice and I'm very proud of where they are right now."
Czarnecki highlighted JV swimmer Aaron Winters as one of her team's athletes who performed well given a chance to swim with the varsity due to some illness in other parts of the lineup.
"He dropped 15 seconds in his 200 free and 8 seconds in his 100 free. He's a hard worker and is coming on really strong," Czarnecki said.
Maxwell Hagwell had the top finishes for the Red Raiders. He finished fourth in the 1,000 freestyle and the 500 freestyle.