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Boys Swimming: Stevenson’s depth prevails against elite field
Mundelein's Max Groin competes in the 100 yard butterfly during the Lake County Meet| Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 17, 2011 9:56PM
In high-school boys swimming, the races always go to the swiftest.
But the team-championship trophy ... well, that’s a completely different matter.
At Saturday’s Lake County Invitational at Stevenson in Lincolnshire, Warren won six of the 12 events, yet — because of the scoring rules — wasn’t close in the race for the team title, which was won by the host Patriots with 274.5 points. Warren finished with 234, and Barrington was third with 191.
Stevenson won just one event, edging Warren out in the 400-yard freestyle relay by 3:13.2-3:13.26.
But, the team scoring rules allowed a school to enter and score three swimmers in each event instead of the usual two.
And Stevenson has dozens of quality swimmers, while Warren has four elite ones.
Hence, the odd team result.
The individual stars of the meet were double-winners Connor Black (50 and 100 freestyles) for Mundelein, and brothers Matt Conway (100 fly and 100 back) and Danny Conway (500 free and 200 IM) for Warren.
Danny Conway set pool records in both his individual races and also was on the winning medley relay team (three Conway brothers and Chad Church) that set a pool mark.
“It was a huge day,” Danny said. “I wasn’t where I wanted to be at today, but you can’t complain with setting pool records.
“Our main focus was to come in as a team and show Lake County what Warren swimming is about this year. We definitely accomplished that.”
This meet featured probably half of the 10 best teams in the state and, as you’d expect, every winning time was under the state-qualifying standard.
Mundelein’s Black was in top form in the sprints.
“Really, it’s like sectionals before sectionals,” he said. “ It’s all the same guys you’re going to race at the end of the season, so you want to see how everybody matches up.
“Nobody necessarily (aims) for this meet, but you still want to put up some good times.”
For Lake Forest, Peter Grumhaus won the 200 free and was second in the 500. He likes what he sees of his team.
“We’re a very strong team this year. We had some really good freshmen come in like Daniel Smith and Michael LeMay,” he said. “We had a junior come in from Canada, Bogdan Balteanu, and we have guys like myself and Bryan Bunning returning. We should be able to have a very good season if we continue to believe in ourselves.”
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