Swimmers Show Progress At Evanston Invitational

It’s always sink or swim for the members of the Evanston boys swim team when the calendar flips over to the second week of January.

That’s when the Wildkits face a conference foe on Friday night --- in the toughest swim league in the state of Illinois --- and then come back on Saturday to host the prestigious Evanston Invitational.

Head coach Kevin Auger uses the weekend as a dress rehearsal for the Illinois High School Association two-day state final competition and usually it pays off for Evanston’s eventual state qualifiers.

ETHS followed that script again Friday and Saturday, and the Kits culminated a fierce weekend versus elite competition to earn a 5th place team finish Saturday at the 60th annual Evanston Invitational.

Under the NISCA (National Interscholastic Coaches Association) scoring system that rewards individual and relay teams with points based on times --- not on actual finishes at the meet --- Evanston placed 5th with 2,804 points, an increase of 400 points from last year’s performance.

The meet featured seven teams ranked in the top 10 in the state of Illinois in a field of 18 schools overall. New Trier claimed the team title with 3,011 points, edging out Glenbrook South (3,001), Marmion Military Academy (2,937), Neuqua Valley (2,804) and ETHS.

Sixth place individual finishes by Maxton Pomykalski in the 100-yard freestyle (48.50 seconds) and Finch Shewfelt in the 100 butterfly (53.05) were among the highlights for the hosts, along with a fifth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:15.53) and a sixth in the 200 medley relay .

Considering the level of competition is so high, and that his swimmers are still pumping up the volume in practice sets in the midst of the schedule, Auger was more than pleased with the weekend performance by ETHS.

“Between last night (a Central Suburban League South dual meet loss to No. 3 ranked GBS) and today, we had close to 100 percent season best times,” Auger explained. “We tried to treat this weekend like a warm-up for the state finals by having them swim mostly the same events two days in a row. Swim fast on Friday, and then you have to come back on Saturday and swim fast again. And, for the most part, they did that.

“Everything we do is really practice for the end of the season. At least half of this group will get to State, I think, and it’s a great opportunity to get up and race against top-notch competition. No other meet on the boys side is better than this (in the regular season).

“We chased season bests this weekend to make sure we’re on the right track. Even winning some of the (slower) heats like we did is important. Hopefully, now they have confidence about what they can do at State because we don’t just want to get to State, we want to get to Saturday (championship and consolation heats).”

Pomykalski played a significant role for the Wildkits on Saturday. The junior standout’s 21.42 anchor leg on the 200 medley relay combined with Will Kleinschmit, Hunter Kleinschmit and Shewfelt for sixth place behind GBS’ winning meet record effort of 1:33.62. The Titans broke the previous mark in that event by more than a full second.

Pomykalski also won his heat in the open 100 freestyle, cutting a half second off his previous best, and pulled the 400 relay unit of himself, Logan Eaton-Strong, Will Kleinschmit and Shewfelt to a come-from-behind win in the second fastest heat and fifth overall. The quartet closed to within two seconds of the IHSA state qualifying standard of 3:13.49.

“Maxton’s 100 was a little faster today than yesterday, and his time was really good, but I was more surprised with that 21.45 because he’s usually better in the 100 and 200,” Auger noted. “That’s a great sign for him.”