Boys Swimming: Shepard wins first conference title since ‘01

Updated: February 4, 2012 4:47PM

With three events still to go at Saturday’s South Suburban Red meet, Shepard’s Nate Calder looked up at the scoreboard and smiled.

The Astros were leading by a wide margin and cruising to the program’s first conference title since 2001.

“It’s huge for everyone because we were so close last year,” Calder said. “We’ve been working so hard, and we went out and did our best. It all worked out.”

Shepard won the seven-team meet easily, scoring 296 points to host Oak Lawn’s 231.5 points. Last season at conference, Shepard was leading through 11 events only to fall to Reavis in the meet’s final race.

Calder was a two-event winner for the Astros, winning the 200 (2:02.05) and 500-yard freestyle (5:25.74). Other Shepard winners included Dan Taylor in the diving (362.25 points), Bobby Marion in the 50 freestyle (:24.42), Steve Martinez in the 100 freestyle (:52.60), and the 200 freestyle (1:35.62) and 400 freestyle relay (3:34.77) teams.

For the quartet of seniors, Calder, Taylor, Martinez and Marion, the win meant everything.

“This is all we wanted,” Calder said. “It puts everyone in the right mindset for sectional, and as seniors we wanted that conference championship. We got it.”

Oak Lawn’s second-place finish came without a single senior on the varsity lineup. Winners for the Spartans included the 200 medley relay (1:49.96) and Yoon Nam in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.97).

“We are very young, but we can compete,” Oak Lawn coach T.J. Zuzga said. “The dual meets don’t mean anything, and we focused on this. They bought into that and performed really well today.”

Sebastian Mysliwiec won the 200 IM (2:10.55) and Maciej Tylka won the 100 butterfly (:59.06) for third-place Reavis (215 points). Neil Slowinski finished first in the 100 backstroke for Richards (4th, 206).

Rounding out the team scores were Evergreen Park (5th, 171.5), Eisenhower (6th, 84) and Argo (7th, 56).

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