Local swim teams seeing needed progress

Oswego’s Justin Reppy competes in the 200-yard freestyle during Thursday’s meet at IMSA. Reppy won the race and helped the Panthers to victory in the triangular meet.
(Heather Eidson/Staff Photographer)

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AURORA -- The boys swimming and diving postseason is four weeks away, so now is the time that coaches would like to see progress from their teams.

That progression was visible at the Illinois Math and Science Academy on Thursday evening.

West Aurora hosted Oswego Co-op and the IMSA Titans. Oswego tallied 133 points to claim first place while the Titans scored 108. The Blackhawks notched 86 points.

Justin Reppy and George Minkel propelled Oswego to the victory. Reppy claimed the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 freestyle while Minkel won the 50 and 100 freestyles.

The pair also teamed with Dylan Coonradt and Gabe Rodriguez for wins in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

"We're really starting to hit our stride the last two weeks," Oswego coach Deryl Leubner said. "We had a great meet on Tuesday. I think straight across the board a season best and we added a couple more today. I think we're heading in the right direction."

"Justin and George have been getting better and better each week and I'm really excited about where they are right now going into the final three, four weeks of the season," Leubner said.

Reppy finished ahead of West Aurora freshman David Pauly in each of the individual events he won, and Minkel bested Rodriguez in both individual races he won. West Aurora senior Josh Jung was third in the both the 50 and 100 freestyles. Blackhawks junior Connor Wiltse finished second in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

"We did pretty good; we had our two fastest swimmers up front so we got out to a good lead," Reppy said of the relays.

"Many of our kids are only three months into their swimming careers period," West Aurora coach Joe Neukirch said. "And for them to come this far, it's pretty awesome. We've got two solid guys who come from club teams and they're motivated by those two guys. And it also motivates those two guys, seeing these inexperienced guys progress so much. It's exciting on both ends."

The Titans' A.J. Gray garnered victories in both the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley. IMSA's 200 medley relay team of Damen Frederick, Gray, John Wang and Oscar To captured first place while Oswego's foursome of Reid Johanns, Brian Bernier, Daniel Minkel and Jacob Goeckel grabbed second place.

"They've done really well so far," first-year IMSA coach Trisha Meier said. "They're training really hard, so the results they're getting are well-deserved."

Wang earned first place in the 100 butterfly and was second in the 100 breaststroke. Bernier scored a win in the 100 breaststroke.

West Aurora junior Chris Hickernell dominated the diving event, tallying 215.00 points. Joey Sanlinas of Oswego was second with 99.45. Hickernell scored 20 points with his two-and-a-half somersault dive while impressing the crowd with each of his turns.

"I've been working really hard on that one," Hickernell said. "I didn't even have that at the beginning of the year. My freshman year I was forced to do diving by my parents and I did gymnastics for awhile. After a few weeks I had a six-dive list and ended up winning my freshman conference."

"He's doing awesome," Neukirch said of Hickernell. "He's had a hill to climb. He looks at it and he's not sure he can get over it, but he's been pushing himself. Mentally, he just hasn't gotten over that hill. But tonight might have shown him that there's another side of that hill and that he doesn't have to climb it all the time."