John Montesantos
Co-Sports Editor
On Saturday Feb. 21, the varsity boys swim team competed in their IHSA Sectional meet at GBN. The boys placed second as a team, with many individual victories as well.
The Titans’ Sectional performance determined who is going on to State this weekend at New Trier. They made the cut in seven individual races and three relays.
Four of the six State qualifiers were sophomore Ryan Bach, junior Dominic Cubelic, and seniors Chris DeLetto and Ben Hengels. The relay team won the 200-yard Freestyle relay at Sectionals with a time of 1:25.47. They hope to break the State or even the National record of 1:22.80 for this event this weekend, which the boys have been striving towards all year.
The same four swimmers will also compete in the 400-Free relay at State. Since each competitor can compete in two relays and two individual events at most, head coach Keith MacDonald has put his four strongest swimmers in two relays together to maximize points.
Seniors Nick Kerndt and Tommy Nimrod also earned a trip to State as part of the Sectionals 400-Freestyle relay. Kerndt was the lead man in the relay, swimming his 100-yard leg first. Knowing that this event was his last chance at State, he shook off the added pressure of being the lead-off guy.
“It was the end of the meet, so for me and Tommy, we realized that if we didn’t make it in [the 400 freestyle], we weren’t going to State,” Kerndt said.
Junior Zach Demertizis, freshman Thomas Pollick, and junior Robby Regalbuto will serve as alternates to these first six swimmers, and junior Woody Lord will be diving in the competition.
MacDonald is proud of his team, but has come to expect the success.
“We had a tremendous meet. Pretty much everyone we expected to qualify got through,” MacDonald said.
According to MacDonald, Bach, Cubelic, DeLetto, and Hengels are all seeded high enough to place this weekend. Each of them has high expectations for himself.
Cubelic, who will be competing in two individual events as well as the relays, plans to place highly in both.
“I’m looking to win the 50-yard freestyle and place top three in the 100-yard freestyle,” he said.
At Sectionals, Cubelic came in at 47.19 seconds in the 100-Free, breaking the GBN pool record set by Colin Cordes last year by over a second.
Hengels completed his 500-freestyle in 4.45.59, just under the State qualifying time of 4.50.25. He expects to place in the top three in the event at State.
Though many of the boys had success at the Sectional meet, DeLetto stood out from the rest. His times dropped significantly in all three of the relays he swam in, cutting over three seconds off his four-length leg of the 400-Free.
DeLetto also won his individual at Sectionals, the 50-yard Freestyle, with a time of 21.18 seconds. Cubelic finished at a close second, and couldn’t be prouder of his teammate’s victory.
“Most kids would’ve been pissed that they lost, but he came up and gave me a hug and was even more proud than I was,” DeLetto explained.
With memories of Sectionals still fresh in their minds, the Titans must now turn their attention to State.
According to Cubelic, the boys are now “tapering” in preparation for the State meet. This is a workout in which they reduce the number of yards they swim each practice, resting their bodies for the big meet.
With New Trier and Nequa Valley expected to take the top two spots, third place is wide open for the Titans. South will battle schools like Naperville Central and Lake Forest for the spot.
If they achieve their goal, it will be the third year in a row that the program has had a top-three finish.
The State meet begins with the preliminary races on Friday where everyone competes. The top 12 from each event then go on to the finals on Saturday.