An Exclusive Hair Club For Bronco Swimmers

Not only do Barrington swimmers have a long standing tradition of winning, especially in conference and sectional competitions, but they also have a unique tradition that unifies the team and mentally prepares them for their playoff run towards state.

For years now, Barrington's varsity swimmers have a practice of bleaching their hair after their final dual meet of the season. Next, they dye it red for their conference battle, before the final step of shaving their heads for the sectional meet.

It seemed to work last year as the Broncos took the MSL Conference meet, despite losing the division title to Conant. Things seemed to almost mirror last year's results as Barrington again lost the division (to Fremd) but took the conference title with a dominating team effort that gave them 297 points.

“I'm glad we came back and got the overall title,” Barrington's senior swimmer Matt Lee said following the meet. “We've been working very hard in practice and really motivated; we just kept in mind that conference, sectionals and state are our top priorities.”

Lee had a stellar day leading Barrington to their title as he helped the 200 yd. freestyle relay finish first (with sophomore Jack Strauss, junior Kyle Ujiiye and senior Daniel Comyn), was part of the second place 400 yd. freestyle relay (with Daniel Comyn, junior Leo Hayden and sophomore Tommy Clement), took first in the 50 yd. freestyle and captured a fourth place in the 100 yd. freestyle.

Also helping Barrington in the 12 event swim meet was junior Leo Hayden who captured first in the 200 yd freestyle, 100 yd butterfly, and also chipped in on the 400 yd freestyle relay that took second.

“We did have to shake up the [relay] lineups this week,” Barrington's coach John Valentine said. “With Greg Alexander out due to his hand injury (stitches) it was really nice to see other swimmers step up and fill in the gaps, and do better than we did earlier in the year.”

Other Barrington swimmers that added to the day's overwhelming success:

Daniel Comyn took second place in the 50 yd freestyle and finished just .2 seconds behind teammate Lee.

Barrington finished first-second in two other events as well: Jack Strauss and freshman Connor Cobida in the 200 yd individual medley and in the 100 yd butterfly with Hayden and Ujiiye.

Strauss also took first in the 100 yd freestyle while Cobida secured a first place finish in the 100 yd breaststroke.

In the 100 yd backstroke senior Alex Anderson took second and Tommy Clement fourth, and rounding out the Barrington swimming success was freshman Sebastian Piekarski who took home a fifth place finish in the 500 yd freestyle.

“This was really all about getting the best we could out of our best swimmers, and our kids stepped up and really performed today,” Valentine said. “These kids started off the year a bit rough but worked hard all season during practice, and what was seen tonight was the results of their efforts.”

Barrington moves on to compete in sectionals and hope the third part of their hair tradition will provide a better outcome than last year's sectional finish where the team took second, losing to the always powerful Stevenson.

The sectional last year was held at Stevenson so hopefully the fact that this year's meet will be in Barrington (next Saturday February 19th) will be a plus, but Valentine isn't concerned where they swim since he doesn't believe in home pool advantage despite Barrington's top of the line natatorium.

“At the end of the day it's 25 yards and the same amount of water,” Valentine said. “Next week is about qualifying as many kids as possible for the state meet.”