Deerfield Sends Swimmers to State

Submitted by Deerfield High School

The Deerfield High School Boys Swimming and Diving Team had an outstanding showing at the 2015 IHSA Sectional Meet at Glenbrook North High School this past weekend. Placing 5th overall, four Deerfield swimmers and two divers qualified for the IHSA State Meet next weekend at New Trier High School. On top of qualifying, the team broke four team records and Sean Scarry placed 1st in diving, breaking both his previous team record and the pool record.

The team had an amazing performance with personal bests in every single event. Deerfield swimmers Scott Stern (So.), Evan Fischoff (Jr.), Ryan Smith (Jr.), and Kellen Scanlan (Sr.) set the tone in their first event, the 200 yard medley relay. The relay dropped over five seconds to place third and qualify for the State Meet with a time of 1:37.19, also setting a new team record.

Continuing this momentum, Stern qualified for State in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 53.45 seconds, placing 5th and earning his first ever individual State meet qualification. Smith, a State qualifier in previous years, also had an excellent meet, qualifying for State in the 100 yard butterfly and 100 yard backstroke. Placing 4th with a time of 52.27 and 2nd with a time of 52.49, respectively, Smith set new team records in both individual events. Other great performances included Andrew Devedjian (So.) placing 4th in the 500 yard freestyle, dropping nearly 10 seconds and a few seconds shy of the State qualifying time. Smith, Stern, Fischoff, and Scanlan again in the 400 yard freestyle relay had another wowing performance, seeded 11th of 13, they dropped over 14 seconds to place 7th overall, just missing the state cut. Overall, Deerfield swam an amazing meet, posted times nobody could have expected, and fought to ensure this would not be their last meet of the season.

Photos: state qualifier divers Heath Ogawa and Sean Scarry with Coach Foerch (voted sectional diving coach of the year), Ryan Smith – state qualifier in the 100 Backstroke and 100 Butterfly (two new team records), Scott Stern – state qualifier 100 backstroke and 200 medley relay that qualified for state – Scott Stern, Evan Fischoff, Ryan Smith, Kellen Scanlan (set new team record).