Strong Comeback Powers Kit Swimmers To State

It took Logan Eaton-Strong a lot longer than expected to break through for the Evanston swim team.

Having your back in a brace for three months has a tendency to slow anyone down.

But Eaton-Strong’s inspired comeback powered Evanston to one of its best sectional showings in years Saturday at the Niles North state qualifying meet in Skokie.

The ETHS junior qualified in two individual and two relay events, sparking the Wildkits to a school record performance in the 200-yard medley relay, and a fifth place overall finish in the team standings.

Evanston accounted for six individual qualifying spots and will send all three relays to State for the second year in a row. The Kits didn’t a win a single event --- or the automatic qualifying spots that go with that accomplishment --- and advanced by beating the existing Illinois High School Association state qualifying time standards.

The state finals will be held next Friday and Saturday at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

Wildkits Maxton Pomykalski (200 freestyle) and Finch Shewfelt (100 butterfly) earned repeat trips in their respective events, but it was Eaton-Strong who claimed the headlines with four of the best swims of his career.

He missed almost all of last season with a stress fracture in his back, a crippling injury for any high school athlete and a potential career-ending blow for a swimmer. But a cautious approach to the months of rehabilitation required got him back on track.

And it was worth the wait for the Wildkits after he qualified in the 50 freestyle (tie for 6th place in 21.66 seconds) and 100 freestyle (7th in 47.01), even though he didn’t compete in the fastest heat (in the state’s fastest sectional) in either event.

In the relays, Eaton-Strong was nothing short of sensational. His freestyle leg of 20.85 applied the finishing touch to a school record time in the 200 medley of 1:34.14, good for 5th place in the race. He combined with brothers Will and Hunter Kleinschmit and Shewfelt to wipe out the previous ETHS record of 1:34.79 set back in 2022.

Inserted into the No. 2 position in the 400 freestyle relay, instead of leading off, he responded with a leg of 45.81 --- that’s no misprint --- and the Kits almost chased down meet champion New Trier before settling for the runner-up slot with a season-best clocking of 3:07.12 to New Trier’s 3:06.59. The unit of Eaton-Strong, Will Kleinschmit, Shewfelt and Pomykalski came close to another school record, which still exists at 3:06.65 back in 2014.

How good was that 45.81 split? A check of the history books would reveal that only a handful of elite swimmers --- Wildkit standouts like Terry Silkaitis, Blake Wallace, Sean McCaffrey and Jacob Johnson --- have ever turned in performances with the number 45 attached to them that way.

“Now he’s part of an elite, elite group,” praised Evanston head coach Kevin Auger. “He swam even better than I anticipated he would today. It’s not too often that one of our kids surpasses my expectations, but he did, especially on that last relay.

“I thought he was one of our most promising swimmers before the season started last year. But he basically missed from mid-December to May and that was a pretty major injury. He’s mostly been a 500-200 freestyle guy for us this year and we weren’t sure if we’d do that again this week, like we did in the conference meet.

“Watching him in the water (in practice this week) these shorter races seemed like a better fit for him. He really wasn’t ready to do the 500 (at a higher level of competition in the postseason) but I knew he could make it to State in the 50 and 100. Well, I knew it in hindsight, at least.”

“I was super excited for that last relay, and I just channeled all my energy into that race. I didn’t feel as much pressure as I usually do when I swim leadoff, so I just felt more open to let it loose,” said Eaton-Strong. “It was just a mental thing, a lot less pressure.

“I’ve had time to think about it over the last couple of weeks and I’ve had time to be really grateful for being able to come back. There was no real injury when it happened (from a combination growth spurt and over-use) and we caught it very early. But it was hard because I had to stop all physical activity.

“I was out of the water completely for three months and I’ve never been out that long (since he started competitive swimming as a youngster). Even when I came back, I could only bob up and down in the water for the first couple of weeks just to get a feel for it again. The summer was really hard, but my friends on this team helped me so much. I worked a lot of weekends just to prepare for this moment.”

Eaton-Strong’s versatility, the ability to contribute quality swims from distances of 50 to 500 meters, caught Auger’s eye right from the start of his career. But his days as a distance swimmer may be numbered now --- and no program ever has TOO MANY sprinters.

“It’s been a toss-up for the whole season, which events I’d swim at the end,” said the Evanston junior. “That injury took away a lot of my endurance so I focused a little more on speed when I came back. I really had no idea what I’d swim at sectional. Now I’d have to say my favorite races are the 100 and 200.

“I felt really good in the warmups, more rested because I wasn’t swimming the 500. I told Coach Fargo (assistant coach Chuck Fargo) that I’d swim a 45 in the relay, but it was kind of a joke. I was hoping to go 45. Seeing that number on paper, though, is a little unreal.”

Shewfelt’s 51.07 clocking in the butterfly ranked 6th overall in a field where a total of nine swimmers beat the IHSA standard. The senior standout, who set a school record when he won the 100 backstroke at last week’s Central Suburban League South division meet in 51.56, would have been the No. 1 seed in the sectional in that race.

Instead, he chose to join the 200 relay team in a bid for the school record there and sacrificed a potential individual State spot of his own. The Wildkit quartet of Shewfelt, Pomykalski, and the Kleinschmit brothers placed 3rd in 1:24.94. They only missed that program mark by two-hundredths of a second Saturday and will take aim at it again next weekend.

Pomykalski turned in a season best time of 1:42.80 in the 200 freestyle, good for 3rd place, and Hunter Kleinschmit showed he’s on track to reach the final day of competition at State in the individual medley just like last year, taking 3rd overall in 1:53.38.

Evanston’s other individual qualifier was Will Kleinschmit, who tied teammate Eaton-Strong for 6th in the 50 freestyle in 21.66.

The Wildkits finished 5th in the 12-team field with 153 points, behind New Trier (263), Glenbrook South (241), Loyola Academy (181) and Niles West (155). Both New Trier and GBS are ranked in the top 5 in the state of Illinois entering the IHSA finals.

“There were a lot of ups and downs for us, just like at every qualifying meet,” Auger said. “Even when they didn’t quite qualify, they had their best times. We got all three relays through and put the others in position to score points next week. Everyone had good races --- and some of them were great.”