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Sports

New Trier Wins State Swimming Title

Trevians win record 21st state swimming championship

The New Trier boys swimming team turned the seemingly inevitable into reality Saturday.

Living up to expectations both internal and external, the host Trevians rolled to their fifth state championship in the past eight years and 21st overall. New Trier scored in every event and tallied 217 points, the highest scored at the state meet since 1985 and the ninth-most in the 80-year history of the state finals.

Naperville Central, which edged out New Trier and Neuqua Valley for the 2010 title in the closest finals since 1947, finished a distant second with 163 points, while Normal was third with 96. The 54-point winning margin was the largest since 1994.

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“We told the guys [before the meet] that this is the best team we can have right now,” New Trier senior CJ Smith said. “We meshed really well together and I think everyone knew our goal was to come in here and compete for that title. It’s awesome to win by that much.”

The Trevians were heavily favored all season to win the title, though they took nothing for granted because every other team was gunning for them.

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“We always have a target on our back,” New Trier coach Mark Onstott said. “We’ve had a target for a long time. We just go about our business and the guys really responded well.

“We knew you’ve got to swim Friday night. You swim for time on Friday and you swim for place Saturday and the guys did a good job Friday and then they held it [today]. That’s the key.”

After getting at least one swimmer in each event through Friday’s preliminaries, the Trevians were seeded to score 218 points if they duplicated their placings in Saturday’s finals, while Naperville Central was seeded for 172. Only something like disqualifying a relay, which has happened at state before, could trip up the Trevians, who made sure that wouldn’t happen.

“We had to come into this meet thinking anything’s possible, so we really had to work hard,” said junior Jordan Sacks, who placed fourth in diving with 442.75 points. “You can’t just be given a state title. You have to work for it and that’s what we did. That’s why we are where we are.”

As they usually do, the Trevians dominated the relays, winning the last two. The 200-yard freestyle relay squad of junior Sam Skinner, junior Nels Snyder, sophomore David Schriesheim and junior Max Grodecki won in 1:24.58 and the 400 free quartet of Skinner, junior Nick Killeen, sophomore Reed Malone and Grodecki closed the meet by winning in 3:03.84.

Grodecki had a huge day as he won the 100 freestyle in 45.17 and was third in the 50 free in 20.67, both personal bests.

“I still can’t believe it,” Grodecki said of being an individual champ. It’s really tough to believe. It’s an honor. It feels great being part of the New Trier tradition. It’s a great experience.”

It’s an experience the Trevians could relive at least once or twice in coming years because they will graduate just four seniors – Smith, Konrad Von Moltke, Matthew Gagne and diver Matt Staab.

The Minnesota-bound Smith, who carted off two more individual medals by taking second in the 500 free (4:28.97) and fifth in the 200 free (1:41.39), summed up the situation most eloquently.

“To say I’m part of this dynasty is great,” Smith said. “I’m going to be able to talk about this for another 50 years.

“Everyone knows New Trier. You can go to California and they know who we are and that’s just awesome to us. To be a part of something with such rich tradition, we take that with pride and we don’t want to ruin that. We want to give our hardest at all times and with good sportsmanship.”

Von Moltke placed seventh in the 100 breaststroke (57.93) and teamed with Gagne, Snyder and sophomore Jack Mangan to take second in the 200 medley relay (1:32.99).

Gagne was fourth in the 100 butterfly (50.30), Killeen took eighth in the 200 free (1:41.60) and Skinner finished 10th in the 100 free (47.04). Malone medaled in the 500 free (third, 4:29.5) and 200 individual medley (fourth, 1:52.83), while Mangan and junior Dan Whitcomb were third (50.53) and ninth (51.86), respectively, in the 100 backstroke.

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