Oak Park's long wait ends in diving

Updated: March 23, 2011 4:10PM

It has been a long time since Oak Park-River Forest has produced a state diving medalist. Junior Ben Lewis' wait has only been two years.

Lewis moved to Oak Park with his family from Columbia, S.C. after his freshman year, partly due to that state's lack of diving as a high school sport.

Lewis, who previously lived in Bloomington, Ind., had family in the Chicago area, which has helped make Oak Park a comfortable new hometown. Now that Lewis is having success, could he revive OPRF's diving program?

Lewis finished eighth (425.65 points) at the 83rd annual state swimming and diving meet Saturday at New Trier to become OPRF's first medalist in the event since 1979. Brian Scotty finished second that year after taking fifth in 1978.

Oak Park was a state diving power in the 1930s and 40s. Next season, Lewis hopes to become the first Huskies state champion since Ralph Trimborn in 1945. Over those two decades, OPRF had four state titlists and earned 12 state medals in diving.

Last season, Lewis finished 15th (257.65). He will be considered one of the favorites to win next year's state meet since 10 of this year's top 12 finishers were seniors. The only returning diver next season to finish higher than Lewis was New Trier junior Jordan Sacks (442.75), who placed fourth.

"I just wanted to do my best," Lewis said. "There's always next year. I want to learn new dives to perform even better."

Lewis had been diving off and on since Kindergarten. Now he competes for the Oakton Diving Club and plans on participating in USA Diving's Midwest Regionals at Northwestern later this month. During the summer, he hopes to attend diving camps at Purdue and Indiana University.

"I really don't think there is any sport like it," Lewis said. "Ninety percent of it is mental once you learn the physical stuff."

After Friday's preliminaries, Lewis was in fifth place with 317.05 points. He became the 12th different OPRF diver to earn a state medal.

Sophomore Nikita Bondarenko was OPRF's top individual swimmer in the state meet, finishing 15th in the 500-yard freestyle (4:40.96) and then placed 22nd in the 200 free (1:44.92).

Kyle Patnode was the Huskies' other double-event individual, taking 18th in the 100 back (53.35) and 27th in the 200 IM (1:58.28).

Oak Park's 200-medley relay was 29th (1:38.71) with Patnode, Luke O'Connell, John Verticchio and Armando Lee.

O'Connell placed 36th in the 100 breast (1:01.62).

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