Boys Swimming: Chesteron blows by Munster

Updated: January 26, 2012 10:23PM

MUNSTER — As a rule, swimming dual meets are low-key affairs which stars often train through, coaches use to shuffle their lineups and the times are seldom anything special.

Chesterton vs. Munster is always the exception to that rule, and so it was again on Thursday night. The region’s premier rivalry came to Munster’s year-old pool for the first time and Chesterton put on quite a show.

The Trojans not only won every event en route to a 131-55 win, they set pool records in more than half of them. Sophomore stars Blake Pieroni and Ethan Whitaker each broke a pair of pool records with Pieroni lowering his own state season-best in the 100-yard freestyle by more than a half-second.

“Our whole team’s excited,” said Whitaker, whose twin brother Aaron also won a pair of events and set one pool record. “This whole week has been (one of) huge anticipation because we have conference (on Saturday) and Munster has been a traditional rivalry.”

“This Munster meet is a great rivalry,” Chesterton coach Kevin Kinel said. “Everybody swims good regardless of score. When it’s a tight meet, everybody swims good. When it’s not a tight meet, everybody swims good.”

This year, it wasn’t close because Chesterton has a deep, talented team that’s aiming to win a state trophy while Munster is in transition.

But the intensity level never lagged. Chesterton started the meet with three straight pool records from the 200 medley relay team of Nick Borzych, Jack Wallar, Aaron Whitaker and Pieroni, who swam 1 minute, 36.16 seconds; Ethan Whitaker in the 200 freestyle (1:44.94) and Pieroni in the 200 individual medley (1:54.48, a season best).

The Trojans later had another run of three pool records in a row from Aaron Whitaker (50.61 in the 100 butterfly), Pieroni (45.63 in the 100 free) and Ethan Whitaker (4:44.43 in the 500 free).

“He’s been steadily improving all year and today he went nuts,” Kinel said of Ethan Whitaker, whose pool records were the first of his high school career. “His improvement has been a huge addition to our team this year.”

As for Pieroni, Kinel said, “he gets excited in competition, in a fast pool. He swam great; all the boys did.”

Wallar got Chesterton’s other pool record, going 59.09 in the 100 breaststroke, and he also won the 50 free in 21.98. Aaron Whitaker got the second of his two wins in the 100 backstroke (52.55).

Diver Austin Roach scored 239.20 points to win that event and Chesterton swept both the freestyle relays, going 1:28.53 in the 200 and 3:17.74 in the 400.

Now it’s on to the Duneland Athletic Conference meet Saturday at Crown Point. “We’re looking to see where we’re going to be putting some guys for the sectional, see what we can do against the competition there,” Ethan Whitaker said.

Munster, meanwhile, will host the Northwest Crossroads meet. “We had some good swims,” Seahorses coach Matt Pavlovich said. “We knew what the result would be on the boys side. ... We were trying to create the sectional feel of Thursday and Saturday (competition). Let’s look at our times and see if we can swim faster on Saturday.”

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