Where to start? Well, we finished 2nd to our friends from Glenview, but that doesn't even begin to tell the story. When the day ended, the Spartans had 2 Sectional Champions, 6 State qualifiers in 8 events, 3 school records, and 1 pool recorded. Also, one really sore knee! I gotta learn to stay calm. I'll give a blow by blow recap, but you can check out the
results and Vlad's
Sectional Page for pictures and video.
Diving - You know it's a good day when you break the school 11 dive record in 10 dives! You know it's a great day when you break a pool record held by a 3 time State champ! Jonanthan Roby came up huge with a score of 489.75, easily winning the event. He heads into the State Meet with a great shot at making it to the Finals. While we were all blown away with that performance, Cameron Marsh came through with a score of 317.25, good enough for 7th place and just missing getting a medal. Cam's score was also the 1st time he broke 300 points! This was a great start to the day!
200 Medley Relay - we decided to make a change from the conference meet and to be honest, I wasn't sure how this group would perform. Ye of little faith. Dean Karahalios led off and only dropped a little over a second (28.05), pretty solid drop for a 50, especially in his 1st Sectional Meet! Next came Tim Kessler and a HUGE drop. Despite dealing with injuries all year, we got a solid 29.7 split out of Skippy (had only been 31.1 all season!). Next up was Ted Grasso who got an awesome start! Ted went faster than last year's split in the 1st meet vs. LT, but hadn't really been having great splits until last week when he went a LTB 24.4. I would've been happy with 24.0, Theodore had other thoughts. 23.50!!! ARE YOU KIDDING!!! Fastest split in the meet! Just when you thought we had squeezed all the juice we could, along came Michael Stryzsowski on the end. We got a 21.97 out of Stry, a little different than last week! We ended up in 5th place with a time of 1:43.23.
200 Free - This was the race that I thought would set the tone for the meet. I didn't realize what we would get of diving and the medley. Neverless, this was a solid event for the Spartans. John Montgomery got his 1st state cut with a school record 1:45.26. John swam a solid race, being a little more controlled first 1/2. I was waiting for "I just got excited" split of 49 low, but instead a solid 50.10. A couple lanes over we just missed a second cut by about a second with Brett Heniken's 1:48.25. After finally picking out a suit and a cap (nice color combo!?!?), Brett looked great the 1st 50 and then pressed a little too much on the second 50. His 50.97 split is his best 100 ever! That fast 2nd 50 really cost him on the last 50. Even so, finish 2nd & 4th, with 2 sub 1:50's, I'll take that.
IM - This was probably the event that made me the most nervous. We started out with Sean Sullivan throwing out a LTB 2:12.27, about 1.5 seconds faster that last week, when that was a 4.5 second drop. Not to bad for a freshman on a 2nd shave/taper! Next came one of the best performances I have ever seen. To be honest, Tommy Gilbert had been struggling a little the last couple weeks. He looked tired at conference and very sluggish early in the week. Looks can be deceiving. Tommy hit the 1st 100 almost exactly as planned, and although was about 3 seconds behind the leader, was right on track to go the State cut. After a fast breastroke split (34.71), Tommy was about a second behind the leader, but comfortably within qualifying. With that yours truly decided to take a victory lap and not see the end of the race. Big mistake, HUGE! As I was standing about 1/2 way down the old pool looking up at the clock, I heard the crowd getting louder and LOUDER!
1:58.74!!! SECTIONAL CHAMP!!! SCHOOL RECORD!!! If someone has this race on tape, I'd love to see the last 50! 4 events, 3 school records. Pretty good.
50 Free - Could we continue the roll? YEP! Michael Brennan threw out a LTB 23.60, just out of the top 12, finishing 13th. Not bad considering he has spent more time icing his shoulder and kicking that he did swimming. Another guy on a 2nd shave & taper and another drop. Not a bad way for a Senior to finish his career. Next up was Stry in lane 7. For whatever reason, that lane has been very kind to us at past Sectionals. Although Stry came up a little short, finishing 5th with a time of 22.45, that is still a good lane. That time would've been good enough to qualify last year!
100 Fly - I was concerned about how we would react to Stry just missing the 50 cut and the 15 minute break. Obviously I worry too much! Sean Sullivan came up a big, with another LTB 1:02.00 finishing 16th. That's a tough double in this meet, not a lot of recovery time between the IM and this race. Solid swim by the newbie! Then came what seems to be a family tradition in the Grasso home, a HUGE fly swim at Sectionals their Senior year. A couple of years ago Vlad was trying to convince me that Pat would go 52+ in the fly. I didn't believe him, but a 52.83 should have made me a beliver. The other day, Vlad proclaimed Ted would go 53+ on Saturday. Coach, athlete, ping-ponger, gadget guy, Vlad is a prophet! Ted, good old lane 7, went out in a smoking 24.39 split and was leading at the 50. He faded a bit but held onto 3rd place with a State qualifying time of 53.86. WHOA!
100 Free - After sitting around for about 90 minutes, it was time for Alex Hsieh to join in the fun. Alex went an LTB (I'll quit typing that; they were ALL LTB's!!!) 51.90, finishing 12th. Preadtor struggled a little the 1st 25, then found his way. Maybe he should've shaved the bottom of his feet!?! Next we had John, ready to build on his 200. He was out in 22.7 and leading through the 75, but faded a little the last 10 yards. He still finished 2nd, breaking that 48 second barrier, with a 47.98.
500 Free - The Legend of Stoichku grows! The other day my wife and I were talking (we try to do that at least once a week), and somehow we ended up talking about swimming. We got talking about my best friend who swam for my dad. Back in 1990, he got 2nd at Sate in the 500, went 4:38. Swam the 1st 400 like a man possesed, and then held on for dear life the last 100. I'm sure I didn't talk this strategy with Kristian Trakov, but that was exactly how he swam. He went his best flat 100 & 200 on the way out and was about 20 yards ahead of the field. Stoich paid for the blistering pace the last 100, but still finished 5th with a time of 5:11.19, just a mere 15 second drop. Next up was Tommy, swimming in same lane and next to the same guy as he did in the IM. Evidently Tommy made him mad! Congrats to Hengels on the 4:41, shattered the pool record. I was sure Tommy would be lost with nobody to race, but again proved me wrong. When he threw out a 1:00 split for the 4th 100, I thought he would end up going about 4:54/4:55. Once agin, Tommy had other ideas. With a fast last 100 (58.3), he ended up with a 4:52.62. That would have been good enough to qualify last year, but about .5 off of this year's cut. Another great swim!
200 Free Relay - Another break, but this one was good. It gave Tommy a chance to recover from the 500 and get ready to be a sprinter for the rest of the day. I was confident we could get this relay in, I just didn't think it would be by that much. Stry got it going with a 22.47 lead-off, almost identical to his time earlier. Next up was Ted. I was hoping for a 22.5-22.7 split and got a 21.98! Then came Tommy. Wasn't sure he would still be wiped out from the 500 - he wasn't! He threw down another 21.98. On the end was John. His 21.20 nearly pulled out the win, but put us under the cut easily with a 1:27.63. That was faster than the old pool record, but we finished 2nd. Oh well! That's also under the All American consideration cut!
100 Back - Dean had an excellent race. Dynamo ended up in 9th place with a time of 59.93. It only took me 1/2 the season to figure we should focus on the back with Dean and he had a great day, getting under 1:00! In the last heat we had Brett and his techniclor suit. He got out good (26.83) and tired a bit the last 25, but had enough to go 55.38, just getting under the cut of 55.47 and finishing 4th.
100 Breast - What size was Skip's suit? It may have been small, but it was fast. A 1:07.7, a 4.5 second drop, keep wearing that tiny thing! Tim got out in a 31.69, what he was splitting on the medley relay most of the year! Skip ended up in 10th and Alex ended up in 7th with a 1:06.78. I think swimming the 100 really helped and let Alex get into flow of the meet. Needless to say, the breastroke was a much better event this week than at conference.
400 Free Relay - On Thursday, the guys were trying to figure out what they needed to each go to get under the 3:17.83 cut. With GBS having been 3:11 early in the season, we knew we probably couldn't win it and had to go the time. I told them the last time we entered the Sectional with a 3:24 free relay, we went 3:14.99. This was doable. While we didn't go that time, we came close - 3:15.29! Tommy got us off with a 49.44! Stop the presses, TOMMY GILBERT IS A SPRINTER! Actually he swam it just like a distance guy, but who cares! We had Brett going 2nd, and he gave us a 50.20 split. He was pretty gassed coming out of the back. At State he'll have more time, hopefully we'll see a sub :50 split. Ted was 3rd and continued his outstanding day. He was out a little fast (22.85), but still pulled out a 48.83 split. Not bad for a guy has never been under a 52! That put us right back in the race. John had a monster 1st 50 (21.69!) and actually came a little faster than he did in his 100. He ended up with a 46.79 split and almost pulled out the win. A GREAT WAY TO WRAP-UP THE DAY!
ON TO STATE!!!
