Boys Swimming: Neuqua Valley comes up short after disqualification

All Neuqua Valley had to do was finish the final race of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay, and the West Chicago Wildcat Relays title would have been Neuqua’s for the seventh time in a row, and the eleventh time in the past 13 years.

Neuqua’s times of 3 minutes, 21.49 seconds apparently was good enough to win the event and the meet.

But one of the Neuqua swimmers jumped into the pool too soon and the Wildcats were disqualified, which sent them down to third place in the final standings in what was the closest three-team finish in the meet’s 29-year history.

The DQ gave the relay meet championship to Lockport with 139 points, ahead of Stagg (137) and Neuqua (136).

“We should have won this meet,” said Neuqua Valley coach Chad Allen. “We had no divers and we battled all the way back and got the lead after nine events. The DQ hurt because we were trying to keep the winning streak alive and we just let it slip away.”

The Wildcats got their first win of the day in the 400 medley relay, in which James Tidd, Drew Dvorchak, Robert Vechiola and Kevin Patterson won in the format that saw every swimmer perform all four strokes in completing his 100-yard portion of the race.

“That race shows that we have a lot of versatility on this team,” said Vechiola. “That will give the coach more options when it comes to choosing the sectional team.”

“All four of those guys can swim all four strokes,” said Allen. “They’re all hard workers who have dedicated themselves to excelling at everything. That was a good race and a good combination of guys.”

Vechiola then combined with Alex Thoele, Tidd and Ian Ivkowich to win the 200 backstroke relay, while Tidd and Ivkovich worked with fellow underclassmen Joe Widuch and Zach Finkelstein to win the frosh-soph 200 free relay. Points from the two frosh-soph races were included in the final team scores.

Waubonsie Valley, which finished fifth in the standings, had some highlights as the Warriors Stephen Ernst, Mike McWhirter, Nathan Morris and Joe Poletto captured the 800 freestyle relay.

“My teammates put me in a nice position to keep the lead on the last leg,” said Poletto.

And then the Warriors who initially finished second in the 400 freestyle relay, were named winners of that event when the Wildcats were disqualified. That team consisted of Poletto, McWhirter, Ernst and Bailey York.

“We had a lot of best times today,” said Waubonsie Valley coach Nick Arens. “You don’t expect that at this time of the season. We’re very encouraged. That was a good meet.’

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