Sports
With Best Score in Nearly Four Decades, New Trier Swimmers Win State Championship
Trevians score 250 points for best-ever performance by a team since 1975.
Max Grodecki and owned the boys’ state swimming championship Friday and Saturday in Evanston.
Grodecki brought home two first-place finishes and swam in two relays that captured the state title. Grodecki, who will attend Wisconsin next year, 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.”
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Grodecki won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.24 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 44.66 seconds. He also was part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sam Skinner, Nels Snyder and David Schriesheim that won in a time of 1:23.01 and the 400-yard 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.
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“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.”
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Malone won the 200-yard individual medley relay in 1:48.35. Malone also swam with Jack Mangam, Grant Smith and Nels Snyder to win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:32.80.
New Trier earned additional honors in diving when Jordan Saks came back from 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 fourth in the 200-yard freestyle and finished fifth in the 100-yard butterfly. Nick Killeen was fifth in the butterfly and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle. Mangan was third in the 100-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard backstroke while Brian Walsh was sixth 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 had 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.”
Naperville North was second with 130 points, Warren was third with 80, while Hinsdale Central and Sandburg tied for fourth with 73 points each. They were followed by Mundelein’s 71 points, Loyola’s 67, Normal’s 54, Glenbrook South’s 45, and Lake Forest and Stevenson, which tied for tenth with 34 points each.
Loyola came up with a state titlist and a second-place finish as the Ramblers made a late charge to finish sixth in the state.
Andrew Jovanovic won his second consecutive state title in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.78 seconds. Not bad for a guy who was battling a bad cold the past few days.
“I took care of myself all year and then got sick earlier this week,” Jovanovic said. “My time didn’t matter; I just wanted to feel better today.”
Loyola coach Mike Hengleman was especially pleased with his 200-yard medley relay team of Jovanovic, Blake Morgan, Brendan Hulsman and Jack Considine. The group, which came into the state meet ranked 22nd, jumped to a sixth-place state finish and set a school record.
“We were hoping for a top 10 finish,” Hengelmann said. “So we reached that goal. We had an outstanding day on Friday. And Jovanovic and Nash did quite well for us.”
