Boys Swimming: Hinsdale Central’s Danny Thomson rolls at Neuqua Valley

Updated: December 17, 2011 7:47PM

Two reigning state champions competed in the Neuqua Valley boys swimming invitational on Saturday and both set meet records.

Hinsdale Central senior Danny Thomson, the state champ in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 free, easily won both races, taking the 500 in 4:37.39 to eclipse the meet record of 4:37.45. Thomson, who owns the state record of 4:21.04 in that event, won it by 5.5 seconds over St. Charles North’s Kyle Gannon.

“While getting the meet record is really nice, it’s not like my goal,” Thomson said. “It’s an added benefit. It kind of reaffirms that I did well and I’m happy.”

The Stanford-bound Thomson captured the 200 in 1:42.77, which was about a second shy of the meet record but faster than what he swam last year and just five seconds off his winning time at state. The fact that he is ahead of his pace from last season shows just how tough it will be for anyone to defeat him.

“I think I was happier with my 200 because last year my best time was right around that, so just to be able to hit that shows that when I get to the end of the season I’m going to have a bigger drop,” Thomson said. “I’m definitely satisfied with it and right now it’s looking like I’m setting myself up for a good state meet. I’m really excited.”

So is veteran Hinsdale Central coach Corky King, who marvels at Thomson’s ability to handle his in-season training with such ease.

“I’m finding it very hard to challenge him,” King said. “Not many people ever coached a guy of that caliber in distance. I’ve had to create workouts for him that I’ve never thought of before.

“One day I think I made him tired. One day. You’re supposed to be tired more.”

Naperville Central senior Sean Lehane is tired but he also appears unstoppable. The Tennessee recruit set a meet record in the 100 backstroke in 51.58, shaving .70 off the old record. Lehane won the state title last winter in the backstroke in 50.28.

“It’s definitely a great thing to come in here and get the meet record and be going two seconds faster than my in-season time last year,” Lehane said. “It’s definitely looking good for the end of the year.”

St. Charles North was saying the same thing after winning the team championship for the first time. The North Stars scored 317 points to top a 12-team field that included all of the best teams from the western suburbs. Naperville North was second with 307 and Hinsdale Central took third, its highest finish ever, with 265.

“This is probably the team that’s been in the best shape I’ve had coming in as any team I’ve coached at North,” said St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney, whose team did not score a point at the state meet two years ago before finishing fifth last season. “Even last year I don’t think they believed really, totally, what they were capable of. This year I think that they believe a little bit more after last year and how we did.”

Senior Chris Dieter led the North Stars by winning the 100 free (47.25) and teaming with Joey Chokran, Nick Kowaleski and Gannon to take in the 200 medley relay (1:39.68). Kowaleski added a victory in the 50 free (22.10).

“Definitely it has boosted our confidence a bunch,” said Dieter, a Miami (Ohio) recruit. “We’ve come off a pretty hard two weeks of training and we kind of rode off some energy that we had. It was flowing today and I thought that was great.”

The North Stars figure to be in the hunt for a state trophy, which would be the program’s first.

“It’s definitely going to be a rat race when it comes down to it,” Dieter said. “There’s a lot of good teams out there, but from what we’ve been swimming, from the times we’ve been putting up on the board, I think we definitely have a good possibility of getting top three. When it comes down to state meet it’s just going to be outracing those other teams that are right with us.”

In other results, Naperville North’s Nick Bessler won the 200 individual medley (1:56.83) and anchored Tom Hubbard, Sam Hiller and Kevin Butz to victory in the 400 free relay (3:14.16). Waubonsie Valley got victories from Michael Stack in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.46) and the 200 free relay team of Michael McWhirter, Adam Stacklin, Stephen Ernst and Joe Poletto.

Naperville Central’s Nate Weeks captured the 100 butterfly (51.74) and Lockport’s Tyler Pastore won the diving with 353.55.

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