Swimmers Break Four School Records At IHSA Finals

Following a record assault for the ages during Friday’s preliminary races, there was really no way Evanston’s swimmers could top themselves Saturday at the Illinois High School Association state finals the next day at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

But somehow the Wildkits did just that.

Evanston continued to climb in the team standings, moving up in every consolation heat where possible, and earned the program’s fourth top 15 finish since 2014.

Junior Hunter Kleinschmit set a school record in the 200-yard individual medley Saturday, adding the exclamation point to a historic effort by all three relays during Friday’s competition and securing a tie for 13^th place for ETHS with 45 points, same as Niles West and St. Charles North.

Hinsdale Central (251), Marmion Military Academy (214) and Glenbrook South (203) all claimed team trophies.

Evanston’s record pursuit resulted in berths in the consolation heats on Saturday for the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays, the first time in program history that the Kits qualified for the final day of competition in all three of those events. Coach Kevin Auger’s squad counted a 9^th in the 200 free relay (1:24.99), an 11^th in the 400 free relay (3:06.98) and a 13^th in the medley (1:34.39) even though those units couldn’t quite touch the wall as fast on Saturday as they did on that record-setting Friday.

Kleinschmit (13^th in the IM in 1:51.23) and Finch Shewfelt (14^th in the 100 butterfly in 50.69) improved their positions in individual events to help account for Evanston’s best team finish since the Kits tied for 12^th in 2022.

“We were shooting for qualifying times on Friday, and we were shooting for places today,” Auger said Saturday. “I am really proud of the way they all raced today. In every event we could move up, we did. The times really don’t mean anything today, it’s all about moving up when you can.

“At the start of the season we were looking at finishing in the top 18 or top 20 at State --- and they surpassed our expectations. They broke three school records at the same meet on the same day, and that’s never been done before here.

“This has been a helluva year.”

Evanston’s relay success actually began with different lineups a year ago at State, where every single relay swimmer scored career best splits in the two-day test against the elite teams in Illinois, a rare feat on the high school level.

The Kits carried that success over to this year’s prelims, where the record assault began in the medley Friday.

Brothers Will and Hunter Kleinschmit teamed with Shewfelt and junior Logan Eaton-Strong for a 1:34.00 clocking, taking down the former ETHS mark of 1:34.79 set in 2022. In the 200 freestyle race, the team of Maxton Pomykalski, Shewfelt and the two Kleinschmits were clocked in 1:24.40, wiping out the 1:24.72 performance from way back in 2001.

It was left to the 400 freestyle quartet of Pomykalski, Will Kleinschmitt, Shewfelt and Eaton-Strong to complete that record sweep. All four standouts turned in splits in the 46 second range, including a 46.01 anchor by Eaton-Strong that finalized a time of 3:06.13. The old mark of 3:06.65 had endured since 2014.

The makeover of Evanston’s record board over the summer will also have to include Hunter Kleinschmit’s 1:51.23 in the IM on Saturday. He chopped more than a full second off his prelim time and erased the previous record of 1:51.85 by Caden Hardy in 2022.

“Of the three relays, the medley was the one that surprised me,” Auger noted. “I really didn’t have that on my radar until the conference meet. I did think the 400 relay would get there, but they (the swimmers) didn’t have it on their record board. It was on mine, in my dreams.

“We had a game plan for that 200 free relay --- and Finch wanted to be a part of it, and he put the team ahead of self (by sacrificing a potential sectional individual championship in the backstroke and opting to compete in the relay instead). The great thing is that we had five guys who could go 21 (splits) in that race, and we had five who could go 46 in the 400. We’ve never had that before. They were really a team.”

Shewfelt shrugged off any praise for his choice.

“I was very happy with what I did in the backstroke at the conference (winning the Central Suburban League South division championship), and I just wanted to end it there on a high note. I felt I had achieved everything I set out to do in that race. I had achieved my goals and it was a lot of fun.

“I really enjoy racing with other people --- not just against them. Swimming on that (200 freestyle) relay was something I’ve wanted to do since we came so close to the school record last year. I’m super excited about what we accomplished Friday. This program has been around a long time and I’m really proud of what we did. This is one of the fastest teams in school history.

“We knew we were good enough (to get those records). It wasn’t a surprise, we just had to go out and get them.”

“It was really fun, to take all those relay records down,” added Hunter Kleinschmit. “When you see all those legends of Evanston swimming up on the record board, it’s always fun to take them down. We wanted to do it, but it was still a surprise.”

Kleinschmit moved up to 13^th in the IM after placing 14^th in the same event at State as a sophomore. Making waves in that particular event is no easy task, because that’s a race that some of the top swimmers of Illinois have focused on.

And of the 16 finalists Saturday --- eight in the championship heat and eight in the consolation heat --- only four are seniors, meaning Kleinschmit will face stiff competition again next season.

“It’s hard. I went two seconds faster this year and I moved up one spot,” he said. “It is fun when you see everyone working hard like that, working hard to get where we want to be. I have to keep improving every day in practice and I definitely have some work to do, when it comes to my mindset, my nutrition and my preparation.

“I prepared better today than I did yesterday. On Friday I didn’t eat enough before the race. I’ve had the IM record on my mind since I was a freshman, really. I wanted to break 1:50, but I’m content with what I did today.

“Kevin (Auger) told me to take the fly a little easier so I’d have the energy to go faster in the back and the breast, and most of the advice he gives is pretty good. It worked out fine.”

Not all of Evanston’s entries advanced from Friday to Saturday. Pomykalski just missed another chance to swim the 200 freestyle, with a time of 1:43.04 that ranked 18^th in the field but was two seconds too slow.

In the 50 freestyle, both Eaton-Strong (21.61) and Will Kleinschmit (21.79) were eliminated even though Eaton-Strong finished first in the heat. Eaton-Strong also came up short in the 100 freestyle, timed in 46.68.