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Sports

New Trier Wins Evanston-Hosted Boys Swim Championships

Trevians score 250 points for best ever performance by a team since 1975

served as hosts for the boys’ state swimming championship Friday and Saturday, but it was New Trier that was the weekend's big winner.

The Wildkits had just one team in the finals. The 200-yard medley relay team of Christian Stakovic, Wesley Marberry, McKenzie Miller and Christopher Russo, finished 12th with a time of 1:37.34. Coach Kevin Auger says that he expects his team to be more represented next year.

“I am really happy actually,” Auger said. “We knew at the beginning of the year we were going to qualify a lot of kids. And we were able to do that.”

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Evanston qualified in every event except the 100-yd butterfly but had strong performances in all the other events.

Hunter Wilson (200-yd freestyle) Ryan Knohl (200-yd individual medley), Russo (50-yd freestyle, 100-yd freestyle), Phillip Struk (diving), McKenszie Miller (100-yd freestyle), John McBratney (500-yd freestyle), Benjamin Sommer (100-yad backstroke), Wesley Marberry  (100-yd breaststroke) all made it as individiuals. The best finishes were Marberry finished 15th in a time of 59.18 seconds and Sommer finished 17th with a time of 52.93 seconds. Evanston also qualified all three relay teams.

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“We had a great meet in the previous week at sectionals,” Auger. “It was just a question if they could get back to Saturday or not. But we have a lot to build on for next season.”

The weekend's big winners

Max Grodecki and New Trier owned the weekend championships.

Grodecki brought home two first places finishes and swam in two relays that also captured the state title. Grodecki, who will attend Wisconsin next year, then picked up his fifth first place medal when the Trevian claimed the state championship with 250 points.

“We are all obviously exhausted,” Grodecki said. “It was awesome. It was a great way to finish off my senior year.”

Grodecki won the 50-yd freestyle in 20.24 seconds and the 100-yd freestyle in 44.66 seconds. He also was part of the 200-yd freestyle relay team of Sam Skinner, Nels Snyder and David Schriesheim that won in a time of 1:23.01 and the 400-yd freestyle relay team that won in a time of 3:00.22.

That group, which included Sam Skinner, Reed Malone, Jack Mangan along with Grodecki, broke a national record of 13 years in Friday’s prelims swimming the distance in 2:59.76 to break the record of 3:01.80.

“We weren’t disappointed we didn’t break the record again in the finals, “said Malone, who won four state titles and was second in the 500-yd freestyle.

“We got the record on Friday. It was a great meet for all of us.”

Malone won the 200-yd individual medley relay in 1:48.35. Malone also swam with Jack Mangam, Grant Smith and Nels Snyder to win the 200-yd medley relay in 1:32.80.  

New Trier also picked up honors in diving when Jordan Saks came back form second-place on Friday to finish ahead of Loyola’s Michael Nash 444.25 to 419.75.

I just wanted to be consistent out there,” said Saks, who will dive for the University of Virginia next fall. “I hit all of my dives just the way I wanted to and limited my mistakes out there.”

In all, New Trier won seven of the 12 events.  They had at least one participant in each event and had 13 swimmers in the top 12 in the state while winning all three relays. Skinner was 4th in the 200-yd freestyle and finished 5th in the 100-yd butterfly.  Nick Killeen was 5th the butterfly and 4th in the 500-yd freestyle.  Mangan was 3rd in the 100-yd freestyle and 2nd in the 100-yd backstroke while Brian Walsh was 6th in the butterfly.

It was the second consecutive title for the Trevians, who have now won the state championship in six of the last nine years. In addition, their score of 250 points was the most recorded by a team since 1975 when Hinsdale Central finished with 307 points.

“These guys worked extremely hard,” New Trier coach Mark Onstott said. “Swimming is all hard work and a little taper and then the payoff.”

Onstott said that this team ranks among the best of all the Trevians’ 22 state titles they now have accumulated in swimming.

“I think they just took over number one,” Onstott said. “We have ahd some really good teams in the last few years.  These guys jumped right up there. The New Trier ’61 team is the gold standard and we will see if what they do after high school will match up.”

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