Southern Maine's Mazurek makes history.Schaumburg's Mieszkowski wins 200 games

The first half of the 50-yard freestyle at Saturday's state boys swimming and diving meet didn't go well for Southern Maine senior Dominik Mazurek.

“I was close to last place,” Hawk, who was competing in the sprint for the first time, said at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont. “It stressed me out.”

However, a good turn and smooth breakout eased Mazurek's stress and allowed him to catch up and pass the rest of the wet field. He reached the final wall in 20.21 seconds, beating second-place Willem Huggins (Carbondale) by just 0.04 seconds.

“I like the chase and it makes it exciting,” the Purdue commit added.

The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Mazurek also made history. The last Hawk to win a winner's medal at the state boys swimming and diving meet was backstroker Frank McCullough in 1967.

Schaumburg senior Szymon Mieszkowski's lively state swim on Saturday also forced people to dig into the past. Saxon, a Kentucky native, topped the 200 free event with a time of 1:37.16, becoming the first in program history since Brock Herr won two titles (200 IM, 100 breaststroke) in 1988. He became a state gold medal winning swimmer.

“Let’s work hard and get an early lead,” the 6-4, 195-pound Mieszkowski said of the first part of his race plan. “I'm tired now, but happy. I raced today with some good friends. Friday (qualifying), this competition was about feeling the atmosphere and the big crowd.

“Today I woke up and was ready to go.”

Mazurek and Mieczkowski each added silver to their medal tally, with the former scoring 43.95 in the 100 free and the latter scoring 47.04 in the back 100.

Hinsdale Central finished with an impressive 337.5 points and moved into the state championship for the second year in a row and 20th overall. The Red Devils won five titles in 12 competitions.

New Trier (210.5) was runner-up, followed by Waubonsie Valley (154), St. Ignatius (150), Stevenson (143), Marmion (117), West Chicago Co-op (94) and Main South (91). , Naperville North (67) and Barrington (65).

Stevenson senior Collin Chan capped off his stellar prep career with a second place in the 100 chest with a score of 53.3 and a fourth place in the IM with a time of 1:48.08. Barrington senior Rylan Anselm was third fastest in the 500 free (4:27.9) and fourth fastest in the 200 free (1:37.85).

Rolling Meadows senior diver Kylen Whiting made history for the Mustang program by one spot better than her fourth-place finish at last winter's state meet. He finished third on Saturday with a total of 502.3 points, scoring a reverse twister on his penultimate dive for 58.5 points.

He said the key to Twister (difficulty level 2.6) is “arm speed.''

Other fast times: 1:22.37 (3rd place Southern Maine 200 free relay — Mazurek, Danilo Marcenic, Alex Wiacek, Max Fedorenko). 55.3 (Silui Wang of Stevenson, 5th place, 100 breast). 20.54 (Conant's Brian Loeger, 6th, 50 free). 48.9 (Stevenson's Diego Rosario-Freites, 6th, 100 butterfly). 1:31.65 (4th place Stevenson 200-meter medley relay — Justin Chao, Chan, Rosario-Fraites, Liam Plauts). and 3:03.59 (Stevenson's 400-meter free relay – Rosario-Freites, Maxim Korbunov, Chan, Plauts).

Barrington senior Lucas Bucaro placed seventh in the 200 IM (1:50.75) and teammate Krish Patel medaled in the diving (sixth, 465.85). Buffalo Grove's Edgar Rutkauskas placed eighth in the 800 breaststroke (55.93 points).

Vernon Hills' 400 free relay of Yuri Praksin, Dan Burke, Eli Spivak and Edward Chao placed sixth (3:04.41).

“It’s a completely different animal,” VH coach Jim Purdan said of Saturday’s state tournament and Friday’s state tournament. “Friday qualifying was nerve-wracking. Today it’s all about going out and having fun and racing.

“The pep talk is over,” he added.

Fremd senior Sean Grady is a four-time silver medalist in the Disabled Athlete Race, running 2:04.97 in the 200 free, 26.63 in the 50 free, 57.59 in the 100 free and 100 chest. He recorded a time of 1 minute 26.33 seconds in the event.